Data from most Pakistani banks stolen, reveals FIA cyber-crime chief

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cyber-crime chief set off alarm bells on Tuesday when he revealed that customers’ data from several major Pakistani banks was stolen in a recent security breach.

"Almost all [Pakistani] banks' data has been breached. According to the reports that we have, most of the banks have been affected," Director of FIA Cyber-Crimes wing Captain (retd) Mohammad Shoaib said.

The FIA official's comments follow a 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.

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.

Concerns about a breach of credit and debit card data 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.

The cyber-crime chief did not reveal exactly when the security breach took place that had affected most Pakistani banks.

“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],” Capt (retd) Shoaib said.

He said the FIA has written to the banks in question and is summoning the banks’ representatives to discuss the situation.

The official pointed out that banks are responsible 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.

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