The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had already instructed all banks to increase their scrutiny after one lender reported the problem at the end of October 2018, beginning of November 2018, but stressed that the banks themselves were not hacked, according to online publication Ndtv.
The skimming operation took details of nearly 20,000 debit and credit cards from 22 Pakistani banks, according to the Pakistan Computer Emergency Response Team (PakCERT), a monitoring group.
BankIslami first noticed unusual transactions of 2.6 million rupees (about USD20,000) on 27 October and temporarily shut down its international payments system. The bank confirmed in a statement that it had shut down its international and online payments systems and notified the central bank. It said the initial illicitly withdrawn 2.6 million rupees had been returned to customers’ accounts.
PakCERT said that details of the cards were posted on the dark net, an area of the Internet only accessible via special web browsers that ensure anonymity. It was not immediately clear how much money was stolen using the cards, beyond an initial report of about USD 20,000.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now