RBI Repels Over 61 Million Cyberattack Attempts in Q4 2025, Highlights AI-Driven Defense
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) faced a staggering 61 million cyberattack attempts on its website during the October–December 2025 quarter, all of which were successfully blocked by its security systems, according to RBI Executive Director P. Vasudevan. Speaking at an event organized by the Merchant Payment Alliance of India (MPAI) in Mumbai, Vasudevan revealed that the threat volume has been doubling every three months rising from 19 million attempts in April–June 2025 to 31 million in July–September before surging to the latest figure.
Vasudevan described the RBI’s website as a "popular target for hackers", though none of the attacks breached its defenses. To counter the escalating threat, the central bank is now leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to detect attack patterns and trace their origins, enabling proactive blocking of malicious activity before it reaches critical systems.
Beyond cybersecurity, Vasudevan emphasized the importance of regulatory innovation in India’s digital payments ecosystem. He cited two key initiatives standing instruction mandates for recurring payments (launched in October 2021) and card tokenization as examples where initial industry resistance gave way to widespread adoption. In February 2026 alone, 876 million standing instruction transactions were executed with a 99%+ success rate, while 117 crore tokens have been created under the tokenization framework, facilitating 119 crore transactions worth ₹15 lakh crore with minimal latency.
Looking ahead, Vasudevan positioned AI and APIs as the cornerstone of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), with applications extending to fraud management, reconciliation, customer grievance handling, and multilingual voice-based payments. The RBI’s proactive stance underscores the growing role of advanced technologies in securing and scaling India’s financial systems.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/reservebankofindia
"id": "RES1774355781",
"linkid": "reservebankofindia",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "10/2025",
"severity": "25",
"impact": "1",
"explanation": "Attack without any consequences"{'affected_entities': [{'industry': 'Financial Services',
'location': 'India',
'name': 'Reserve Bank of India (RBI)',
'type': 'Central Bank'}],
'date_detected': '2025-10-01',
'description': 'The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) faced over 61 million '
'cyberattack attempts on its website during the '
'October–December 2025 quarter, all of which were successfully '
'blocked by its security systems. The threat volume has been '
'doubling every three months, with AI-driven defenses now '
'being used to detect and proactively block malicious '
'activity.',
'impact': {'systems_affected': 'RBI website'},
'investigation_status': 'All attacks blocked; no breach detected',
'lessons_learned': 'AI and advanced technologies are critical for proactive '
'cybersecurity in financial systems. Regulatory innovation '
'and industry adoption of frameworks like tokenization and '
'standing instructions enhance digital payment security '
'and scalability.',
'post_incident_analysis': {'corrective_actions': 'AI-driven defense '
'mechanisms for proactive '
'threat detection and '
'blocking'},
'recommendations': 'Leverage AI and APIs for fraud management, '
'reconciliation, customer grievance handling, and '
'multilingual voice-based payments to strengthen Digital '
'Public Infrastructure (DPI).',
'references': [{'source': 'Merchant Payment Alliance of India (MPAI) event'}],
'response': {'containment_measures': 'AI-driven detection and proactive '
'blocking',
'enhanced_monitoring': 'AI-based attack pattern detection and '
'origin tracing'},
'title': 'RBI Repels Over 61 Million Cyberattack Attempts in Q4 2025',
'type': 'Cyberattack Attempts'}