By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has rejected reports of cyberattacks on its systems after it was reported that the bank’s ATM machines were hacked.
“We have adequate information security controls in place to protect customers and other confidential data, in line with industry practices and SBP guidelines,†said NBP in a statement of Friday. The bank while confirming that a skimming device was found at one of its ATMs in Islamabad, was of the view that such incidents are a ‘common occurrence.’
“Such incidents are quite common in the industry. The bank is fully responsible to reimburse any financial loss to its customers as a result of this skimming subject to verification,†it said. Last month, K-Electric, the sole electricity provider for Karachi suffered a ransomware attack that led to the disruption of billing and online services.
Amid the attack K-Electric customers have been unable to access the online services for their account, and the company appears to be trying to reroute users through a staging site. Furthermore, K-Electric could not issue electricity bills to its consumers in various regions as its billing system became non-functional after the attack.
The ransomware attackers on a Darkweb payment page were demanding $3,850,000 ransom payment, and if the ransom is not paid within another seven days, the ransom will increase to $7.7 million. The cyberattack affected KE’s Windows computers and backups, and hacked encrypted data is no longer usable. Furthermore, the software purchased to protect against hacking has also been affected by the attack.
