Bank Islami customers are not v happy right now.
Cyber crime is increasingly becoming a reality that governments around the world have to deal with. Massive data breaches for internet giants like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and government servers being hacked for the National Health Service in the UK are just a few of the examples of how massive this new cyber terrorism is. Pakistan just became a victim of one, too.
Pakistan was hit by what is being termed as the biggest cyber attack in its history, on Saturday October 27
Bank Islami was just hit with a massive security breach as 6.5 Million Dollars were stolen from its customers. Apart from the missing millions of dollars, allegedly, the data of Bank Islami customers, including account numbers and debit card pins were stolen and are now being sold on the Dark Web.
Before the bank was identified publicly, the State Bank of Pakistan immediately sent out alerts to every bank in the country
Bank Islami identified the irregular behavior on their international payment scheme and detected the cyber attack immediately.
Cyber attack on Bank Islami , it is the biggest attack in the history of Pakistan.All internet banking and atm are closed, amount of 15 million US dollars wiped off.
SBP called all CIOs for an emergency meeting today. pic.twitter.com/55pg0Gha2V— Mansoor Ahmed (@mans00rahmed) October 29, 2018
An official statement from the bank confirmed the attack and released the details of the breach.
#BankIslami Official Response against the Biggest #CyberAttack in #Pakistan History pic.twitter.com/glA0z1KkiG
— Fan@TAK 🇵🇰 (@Tahneet) October 29, 2018
According to the statement, irregular transactions amounting to 2.6 million rupees were detected by the bank on its international scheme. This led Bank Islami to shut down all international transactions in order to halt the process. The missing 2.6 million was credited to the accounts of the local customers who lost the money.
However, during the same time, the bank also stated that transactions were made on international accounts as part of their international scheme using ATM cards. This amount was at an estimated 6 million dollars. The bank was unaware as the bank was apparently ‘logged off’ from the International payment scheme at the time. The State Bank has been advised of the issue at hand and will be of help, accordingly.
Unfortunately, this means 6 million dollars are up in the air, leaving us with one of the biggest cyber attacks in the history of banking in Pakistan.
As a safety precaution, all international transactions have been halted by the bank until further notice.
According to a report, one account holder affected by the attack allegedly immediately received a notification of irregular behavior where he was shown that his account had been accessed from an ATM in Russia.
Though this has been the biggest known attack to date, Pakistan is no stranger to cyber attacks, especially in the financial field. Just last year, hundreds of Pakistanis lost millions in an ATM hacking fraud in which HBL was the bank to be affected by the hit.
Once the news officially broke in the media, Pakistanis all over the Internet have been reacting to the news, as it is one of the most intense security breaches in the history of our country.
#BankIslami biggest cyber attack in the history of banking in Pakistan, ever since the cyber attacks started in the country.
— Yasir Khan ACCA (@greatsialkoties) October 29, 2018
#BankIslami #FinancialCrimes #ITSecurity SBP needs to come down hard on Banks not complying with International Banking Security Standards. #Pakistan @fawadchaudhry @Asad_Umar https://t.co/wKL4G5x95g
— The Disillusioned Oracle (@PropitiousOn3) October 29, 2018
Customers of #BankIslami in my list: Hope your money was intact #CyberAttack
— Yasir Khan ACCA (@greatsialkoties) October 29, 2018
It's an ATM hack. They manipulate the ATM Switch (main server) & after creating a dummy card identical to the original they program the ATM to spew out all the money in the account, the moment the dummy card is swiped anywhere in the world, the cash is transferred. You're Welcome
— The Disillusioned Oracle (@PropitiousOn3) October 29, 2018
At this point, the bank has made the details of the attack known to the public, however, what will happen from here? We’ll just have to wait and see. Watch this site for updates and let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Cover photo source: Mehnat Mazdori/MyBroadband</span