Cyberattack on SMARTs portal; Sebi on red alert
Mumbai, 30 October, 2026
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has put its cybersecurity team on red alert following recent attempts to breach its systems, the latest being a code execution attack on one of its portals earlier this week.
According to sources, and later confirmed by the markets regulator to Business Standard, there was a cybersecurity attack on the Securities Market Trainers (SMARTs) portal a platform for eligible trainers to empanel with Sebi for investor awareness programmes in the securities market.
Sebi witnessed a code execution attack on its SMARTs portal on October 26, 2026. The execution was detected by Sebis cybersecurity system and remedial actions were taken, the markets regulator stated in response to emailed queries from Business Standard.
Under SMARTs, Sebi had empanelled a total of 822 trainers as of March 2026 comprising 725 individuals and 97 organisations, spread across 245 districts nationwide according to data in the regulators annual report.
In a code execution attack, an attacker may remotely run malicious code or commands on a target system or network, often without authorisation or the need for account credentials, passwords or physical access.
The regulator affirmed that, as per protocol, it had informed CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team).
There have been no signs of PII (personally identifiable information) data exfiltration/ breach from the system.
Sebis cybersecurity team has been put on red alert.
Further, sanity checks have been performed on all other Sebi portals, the regulator added, clarifying that there had been no breach of sensitive or personal information of the trainers, such as names, bank details, Aadhaar, PAN (permanent account number) or professional certifications.
However, Business Standard could not independently verify any details about the attackers, including where they were based.
The market regulator added that it had witnessed a large number of such activities in recent days. It may be noted, Sebi has witnessed very large amount of cyber reconnaissance activities in the last several days which have been successfully terminated through SOAR (security, orchestration, automation, and response) action configured in the SOC (security operations centre), Sebi stated.
The market security operations centre (M-SOC) was conceptualised under the regulators cybersecurity and cyber resilience framework (CSCRF) for regulated entities, with the aim of providing costeffective and robust cybersecurity services to smaller players and enabling access to detection, monitoring and incident response capabilities.
Recently, the regulator has also emphasised its preparedness forquantum-era risks and the development oflong-term technology roadmaps for market infrastructure institutions, such as stock exchanges and clearing corporations.
Cybersecurity and industry experts, however, remain cautious about the recent developments.
AI-enabled attacks continue on Indias financial system.
Our cybersecurity awareness month has become the cursed month, said Prashant Mali, a cyber, AI and data protection expert, lawyer and author.
He added that,post-Diwali, organisations would report the losses incurred due to attacks.
I am afraid the losses are poised to be humongous, judging by the cases I am receiving, Mali added.
[The Business Standard]
