Cyber Crime: All Pakistani Banks hacked, data of over Thousands of customers stolen

November 7, 2018:

Valuable data from almost all Pakistani banks has been reportedly hacked.

In a major embarrassment and security breach, data of most of the banks operating in Pakistan has been hacked, a media report said quoting a senior cyber crime official.

The damning disclosure comes days after around 10 banks blocked all international transactions on their cards, following concerns raised about a breach of credit & debit card data, Geo News reported.

In a shocking revelation, Capt Mohammad Shoaib, Director of cyber crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)  said: "According to a recent report we have received, data from almost all Pakistani banks has been reportedly hacked".

FIA has written to all banks, & a meeting of the banks' heads & security managements was being called.

Shoaib said,"Banks are the custodians of the money people have stored in them," adding they are also responsible if their security features are weak that they result in pilferage.

A gang was arrested, whose members used to disguise themselves as army officials & withdraw money from banks after collecting people's data.

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been informed by several commercial banks that they have blocked international payments on debit & credit cards as a precautionary measure following cyber attacks on the accounts of their clients, the Dawn reported quoting sources.

Reportedly data of over 8,000 account holders of about 10 Pakistani banks was sold in a market of hackers, the report said quoting a digital security website krebsonsecurity.com.

Very first case of a cyber attack on a Pakistan's bank was reported by BankIslami on October 27.

Bank said that Rs 2.6 million was stolen from international payment cards after which it has stopped such transactions & allowed biometrically verified payments only on ATM cards within Pakistan, the report said.

Next day central bank (SBP) issued directives to all banks to ensure that security measures on all information technology systems including those related to card operations are continuously updated to meet future challenges, ensure real-time monitoring of card operations related systems & transactions.

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