Truist Bank confirms data breach affecting 65,000 employees

Major US commercial bank Truist Bank has confirmed a significant data breach involving the personal information of 65,000 employees following a hack in October 2023. The breach was made public after a hacker, known as Sp1d3r, began offering the stolen data for $1 million on a hacker site. The compromised data includes account information, bank transactions, and the source code for Truist’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

James Hub, an intelligence analyst at DarkTower, indicated that the leaked data also includes sensitive employee information and extensive financial details. Truist Bank, formed from the 2019 merger of SunTrust Banks and BB&T, is among the top 10 U.S. commercial banks with $535 billion in assets under management. The bank provides services in wealth management, payments, insurance, and both business and consumer banking.

A Truist representative confirmed the hack, noting that the breach was quickly contained with the assistance of external security experts. Additional security measures were implemented, and affected clients were notified. The representative emphasized that there is no connection between this breach and any incidents related to Snowflake, a data storage provider implicated in previous breaches involving Advance Auto Parts and cybersecurity company Cylance.

The Truist breach, initially undisclosed until the hacker’s sale offer, is part of a series of cyberattacks attributed to Sp1d3r. This cybercriminal group has previously sold sensitive data from Advance Auto Parts and Cylance, with offers ranging from $750,000 to $1.5 million for extensive datasets, including millions of customer profiles and employee information.