ABN Amro Is Latest Bank to Suffer Breach After Hack at Supplier

ABN Amro Bank NV became the latest European lender to suffer a data breach through one of its suppliers as criminals seek to exploit weaker links adjacent to banking.

The Dutch bank said in a statement Friday unauthorized parties may have obtained access to data of some of its clients after AddComm was the victim of a ransom-ware attack this month.

Banks are a prime target for cyber criminals given the sensitive financial data they hold and the potential for turmoil from disrupting financial services. While European lenders and their regulators focus intently on guarding against such hacks, the defenses of their myriad number of suppliers have proved less resilient.

Banco Santander SA said this month that data managed by an external party was accessed without authorization, affecting information of clients and staff. Deutsche Bank AG, Commerzbank AG and ING Groep NV were among dozens of companies to see client data compromised last year when hackers exploited a security flaw in a file transfer tool.

ABN Amro said it has no indication that the unauthorized parties have used the data of its clients and that the lender’s systems were not affected. It has reported the breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority and regulators, while AddComm has prepared a report for the police.

AddComm said in statement on its website that the hackers no longer have access to its systems, which are back up and running. The company, which distributes documents and tokens to clients and employees for ABN Amro, said it doesn’t know which data was misappropriated.

The European Central Bank, which oversees lenders in the region, is currently holding a stress test to examine how banks respond to and recover from a cyber attack.

Top photo: Cyclists pass an ABN Amro Group NV bank branch in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. ABN Amro, which hit a 52-week high on Feb. 2, is scheduled to release earnings on Feb. 9.