Qatar National Bank (QNB) has launched an investigation into an alleged security breach, which led to 1.4GB of customer database being leaked online.

Leaked documents include the bank details, telephone numbers and dates of birth of several journalists for Doha-based state-funded broadcaster Al-Jazeera, supposed members of the ruling Al-Thani family, and government and defence officials, a local news website reported on 27 April.

Hacking news portal Hackread, however, reported the incident a day earlier, citing that a group of unknown hackers claimed to have hacked into QNB’s database.

”The massive data dump appears to contain hundreds of thousands of financial records including credit card numbers and their personal identification number (PIN) codes, as well as customer transaction logs,” the portal said. “Moreover, the hackers also claimed to have leaked banking details of the Al-Thani royal family and Al-Jazeera journalists.”

It added that a folder among the leaked data is labelled as “spy”, which would catch the attention of anyone who has the access to the leaked data. The folder was found to have the financial details of what appears to be UK intelligence service MI6, the Qatari Defence Ministry and Qatar State Security Bureau (Mukhabara).