BankIslami Restores Online Banking Services a Month After Cyber Attack

Nearly a month after facing a data security breach and loss of millions of rupees, BankIslami has restored its payment system (electronic banking services) for customers throughout the country.

An official announcement of the bank said: “All of the bank’s services can now be accessed and operated as usual including other banks’ ATMs, Internet banking and Mobile App. The bank’s customers can now access all other banks’ ATMs for Cash Withdrawal and BankIslami’s nationwide ATM network for Funds Transfer (including IBFT), Utility and other Bill payments. Cash withdrawal via Biometric was available before as well. However, POS (Point of Sales) services will be restored soon.

The data security breach of the bank and the subsequent illegal transfer of the money from the account of customers not only caused a loss of money and the damage to the banks’ reputation but it hurt the confidence of the banking customers over the system.

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At BankIslami, customers’ safety holds utmost priority; hence we used all our avenues to ensure that none of our valued customers suffers any loss whatsoever.”

The bank claimed its teams have been in continuous correspondence with our customers and keeping them informed of the situation all the way through. It put in place all the measures necessary and upgraded the system’s resilience to safeguard the bank and its customers.

The bank said that its efforts will further strengthen the customers’ safety and security in every way possible.

In the last week of October this year, BankIslami came under one of the biggest cyber attacks of the country’s history, which not only cost millions of rupees to BankIslami but also sent shockwaves through the banking industry of the country.

The incident not only raised many questions over the security system of the banking industry, but it also prompted the Central bank to intervene and issue instructions to the banks for beefing up their online security system.

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The security breach first came to light on October 27, when customers of the bank received automated messages about their payment cards being used in different countries.

“On the morning of October 27, 2018, certain abnormal transactions valuing Rs 2.6 million were detected by the Bank on one of its international payment card scheme. The Bank immediately took precautionary steps which, interalia, included shutting its international payment scheme. All monies withdrawn from accounts i.e. Rs 2.6 million have been credited in the respective accounts,”  the bank had then said.

After the incident, the SBP had issued directives to all banks to take measures to ensure the security of all payment cards in the country and monitor the usage activity on a real-time basis, especially overseas transactions.