BankIslami Witnesses the Third Massive Cyber Attack in Pakistan’s History: Updated

Once again Pakistan has become a victim of Cyberattack on the country’s banking system. BankIslami debit cardholders now need to be extra careful while doing the financial transactions. Just recently  BankIslami customers have witnessed the biggest Cyber Attack in Pakistan.
The cyber breach came was highlighted on October 27 when BankIslami customers received messages about their payment cards used in different countries. Reportedly, customers lost $6 Million in this biggest security breach in Pakistan.

This is the Worst Cyber Attack in Pakistan- BankIslami customers lose $6 Million

Immediately, State Bank of Pakistan temporarily “restricted use of its cards for “overseas transactions (only),”. However, the cardholders will be able to conduct transactions within Pakistan. This is the Third major cybersecurity breach in Pakistan and the second largest when it comes to Pakistan Banking system. Previously Careem and Habib Bank Limited were prone to security attacks.
An Online expert has advised the ATM cardholder to change their passwords to prevent online financial frauds. The officials who are involved in disaster management and damage control measures following the cybersecurity attack are estimating the financial loss.
Regarding this cybersecurity breach, SBP stated that:

“As a result of a security breach of payment cards of one of the banks in Pakistan yesterday and their unauthorized use on different delivery channels ie at ATMs and POS (point of sale) in different countries, the bank has temporarily restricted usage of its cards for overseas transactions.”

State bank of Pakistan has issued these directives to all banks and have asked them to report in case of any abnormal activities. The directiveS are issued in order to ensure:

• Security measures on all IT systems including those related to card operations should be continuously updated to meet any challenges in future
• resources are deployed to ensure the 24/7 real-time monitoring of card operations related systems and transactions
• Immediately coordinate with all the payment schemes switch operators and media service providers the banks are integrated with to identify any malicious activity of suspicious transactions.

BankIslami Restored all the bank services

Recently BankIslami has announced that its payment system has been successfully restored and running absolutely secured.

All of the Bank’s services can now be accessed and operated as usual including other banks’ ATMs, Internet banking and Mobile App. Thus, our customers can now access all other banks’ ATMs for Cash Withdrawal and BankIslami’s nationwide ATM network for Funds Transfer (including IBFT), Utility and other Bill payments. Cash withdrawal via Biometric was available before as well. However, our POS (Point of Sales) services will be restored soon.