Clarification sought from government on hacking of Pakistani banks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Abdul Qadri Patel during Wednesday’s National Assembly session sought clarification from the government over Pakistani banks being hacked.

“The FIA has confirmed this and till now there has been no response from the government. This was a major issue which has been covered in the media. Pakistanis are restless that their accounts have been hacked,” Patel said on the floor of the National Assembly.

The PPP lawmaker called on the treasury benches to respond to reports of bank accounts being hacked. “Is the system of our banks so weak like a banana republic that they can be hacked with such ease?”

In response to Patel, Federal Minister Faisal Vadwa said reports were misleading and only one bank had been hacked. “One account of Bank Islami was hacked. It is a misleading statement that all accounts of banks have been hacked or data has been breached. The State Bank is doing its due diligence and trying to sort out a way of rectifying it.”

On November 6, the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cyber-crime chief set off alarm bells when he said data from “almost all major Pakistani banks” was stolen in a security breach. The State Bank of Pakistan rebutted the FIA official’s statement saying there “no evidence that banks data had been breached, except for one” bank – that being Bank Islami.

According to a report by cybersecurity firm PakCERT, a total of 19,864 debit card details belonging to 22 Pakistani banks are being sold on the Darknet.