Country
Pakistan

Source
Cybercrime report

Title
Banking sector breach (Oct 18)

About
Banking sector lost US$6 million in cyber security attacks as online security measures failed to prevent breach in security in which overseas hackers stole customer data. Data from 19,864 credit cards belonging to customers of 22 Pakistani banks had been put on sale on the dark web. Bank Islami customers complained criminals were conducting transactions on their accounts, they showed the messages.

Key findings
After receiving tens of thousands of complaints Bank Islami launched a probe on the incident and found that over $3 million worth of transactions were made by international fraudsters using the bank card details of their customers. They decided to immediately block international payments from their country on 27th Oct 2018. Probe revealed the data break was a result of a cyber attack in which the payment network of Bank Islami & the international payment scheme was compromised. As this was one of the biggest data breaches in history of Pakistan the Central Bank of Pakistan instructed all commercial banks to stay alert on the card payments done by respective customers. Pakcert investigation revealed data was in 2 formats, firstly text format info (personal info) which might have been access by hacking the database. secondly available in physical form where hackers could have scanned using skimmers from compromised ATM or merchant machines. Also HBL, UBL, Standard Charter, MCB & Meezan Bank with more then 3K card details compromised.

Website
https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/almost-all-banks-in-pakistan-become-victim-to-cyber-attack/