Services unaffected post cyberattack: NBP

State-owned bank says all transactions are functional and safe

KARACHI:

The state-owned National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) on Sunday said 1LINK had confirmed there was no disruption of any interoperable banking services during or after the cyberattack on it.

“All transactions, both financial (ATM cash withdrawal, 1IBFT – inter-bank funds transfer and bill payments) and non-financial (balance inquiry, title fetch and bill inquiry) are completely functional and safe,” it added in a statement.

“There was no downtime from Thursday till now, and the transaction volumes suggest that customers are conducting transactions as usual.”

The bank said this clarification was to dispel all rumours and give comfort to its customers that the country’s payment systems and digital banking were safe.

“Neither customer data is compromised, nor through the 1LINK grid or its member banks.”

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), 1LINK and all banks are closely monitoring the situation to ensure continued safety and soundness of the banking and digital payments system.

The NBP said customers could comfortably conduct their transactions using their accounts, mobile apps, internet banking and debit and credit cards through all available channels, i.e. ATMs, POS terminals, internet banking, mobile banking, OTC and other digital means.

Also read: NBP reports cyberattack on its servers

However, it advised customers to practice extreme caution in safeguarding their digital credentials which are required to perform transactions, including ATM pins, passwords, OTP, etc.

A day earlier, the state-owned bank came under a cyberattack, which affected its branches in providing some of the services to the customers.

"Currently, the NBP's services to its customers are disrupted, but we are working to address the breach and remain confident that essential customer services will be restored by Monday morning (today),” NBP said in a statement issued in connection with the cyberattack.

"The NBP has reported a cybersecurity-related incident which is being investigated,” stated the SBP in a tweet. “The NBP has not observed any data breach or financial loss. No other bank has reported any such incident."

NBP President Arif Usmani, while talking to a private TV channel, said the mainframe computer of the bank had totally remained unaffected from the cyberattack and personal computers had been disconnected from the mainframe as they are infected.

"Some 40-50 foreign as well as local experts are working to disinfect the system as we speak."

He said three highly professional companies including Microsoft were engaged to make the bank fully functional by Monday morning.

"This attack is similar to the one encountered by the FBR [Federal Board of Revenue]," he said.

The FBR faced a cyberattack about two-and-a-half-month ago. It took it almost two weeks to fully recover from the attack.