Hackers stole customer data from Pakistani banks, warns FIA

Federal Investigation Agency has said, that the data of major Pakistani banks have been hacked. The banks have not shared details with the authorities, however, the investigations conducted by the agency confirmed the incidents of data theft include ‘almost all’ banks.

Concerns about a breach of credit and debit card data already spread in the banking circles, after a cyber-attack on Bank Islami last week that siphoned off at least Rs2.6 million from its accounts.

Director FIA Cyber-Crimes Wing Captain (Retd) Mohammad Shoaib, while taking to local news channel informed, “Almost all [Pakistani] banks’ data has been breached. According to the reports that we have, most of the banks have been affected”.

“More than 100 cases [of cyber-attack] have been registered with the FIA and are under investigation. We have made several arrests in the case, including that of an international gang [last month]”, he further added.

The comments from the officials came after the recent report from Group-IB, a global cyber security firm, that hackers had released a new dump of Pakistani credit and debit cards on dark web forums.

Director FIA Cyber-crimes wing also informed that the FIA has written to the banks in question and is summoning the banks’ representatives to discuss the situation.

He further pointed out that it is the bank’s responsibility for ensuring security of their clients’ data. If a bank’s security infrastructure is weak then the bank is to be held responsible for any breach, he added further.

The cyber-crime chief further informed that recently a group of hackers was arrested which used to disguise themselves to con people.

It was earlier, by the end of last week, at least six Pakistani banks had suspended usage of their debit cards outside the country and blocked all international transactions on their cards.