The country’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank has suffered a data breach, although the bank claims that there has been no monetary loss.

Axis has hired audit firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) to conduct a probe, according to a report by Sugata Ghosh of Gadgetsnow.

The bank came to know of the breach rather fortuitously through Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky which happened to come across the information as part of a separate probe.

Axis has confirmed that an offshore hacker did get unauthorized access into the bank’s servers. Although there are no reports of any fund transfers yet, the bank is trying to determine the extent of data loss if any, and also whether the virus is still present in the bank’s system.

A bank spokesperson said: "Axis Bank, like many other large financial institutions, often receives security threats from across the globe. The bank has strict security protocols and procedures in place and all its online properties are monitored round the clock by its in-house team of security experts...Safety and security of our systems and processes are of paramount importance to us and we constantly monitor and are vigilant in our efforts to combat any potential threats. We would like to state that there has been no monetary loss," said the Axis official.