Banks being hit by cyber attacks: FIA.

Byline: Salman Siddiqui

KARACHI -- Starting with a single financial institution BankIslami Pakistan, cyber attacks on banks in the country are now being reported on a larger scale.

It has put big question marks on the findings of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the banking regulator on cybercrime as the two have taken completely opposite positions over the occurrence of fresh online frauds.

'People continue to lose money from their bank accounts ... the cause for concern is that banks hide information about cyber robberies,' said FIA Cybercrimes Director (retd) Capt Mohammad Sohail in a video recording in the early hours on Tuesday.

The statement badly jolted the entire banking system and shocked their regulator - the State Bank of Pakistan.

Later in the day, they came on record individually, contradicting the FIA director's statement.

The SBP and banks categorically denied fresh online robberies in any of the banks operating in Pakistan after October 27.

'We would like to emphasise that except for the incident on October 27, 2018 in which reportedly the IT security of one bank (BankIslami Pakistan) was compromised, no breach has been reported,' the SBP said in a written statement.

The Topline Securities reported that the FIA director's statement triggered a massive sell-off of shares of the banking sector at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday.

The FIA director's statement; however, moderately matched the findings of a Pakistani IT firm claiming to be working on cyber security since year 2000.

PakCERT Chief Executive Qazi Misbah claimed that their findings suggest 'a total of 19,864 cards (banking clients' data) of 22 Pakistan banks were compromised (on October 27).'

According to Express TV, 'Former chief scientist of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan saying Rs3 million had 'vanished' from his back account on Monday.

'I don't know how many cards were misused, but the bank could inform you better about this,' the IT firm chief replied to The Express Tribune.

'The data was collected through skimming devices attached with ATM machines installed in different parts of the country,' he claimed.

Earlier, the SBP reported that overseas hackers had stolen the banking clients' data in a cyber attack which took place in late October.

In the attack, BankIslami lost Rs2.6 million, while the international financial system reported the robbery to the tune of $6 million (Rs795 million).

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