ISLAMABAD: One of the banks said to be impacted by the online fraudulent transfer of money in October is alleged of trying to conceal the matter, according to a senior official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
The FIA’s senior official claimed hackers based in forty-four countries had accessed the Visa money transfer service to funnel off the amount, reports Dawn.
According to the FIA, the bank had engaged the services of an international forensic audit expert and a global money transfer entity to investigate the hacking.
The official stated a report from a global expert was expected since it would assist the banking sector and the FIA to bolster their firewalls to prevent any further such instances.
An enquiry has also been commenced and details from the 44 countries where the hackers belong have been sought, said the official.
Interestingly, Pakistan doesn’t have any agreements regarding joint investigation and evidence sharing against crimes with many of these countries.
The other major impediment being faced by the FIA is the unwillingness of the banking sector to cooperate with it.
The preliminary investigation reveals various strange queries linked to the withdrawal of large sums in a single day of Rs500,000 and more, said the official.
Moreover, the official shared the banking sector officials declined to respond to queries as to why the ATM’s hadn’t declined the withdrawal of such a huge amount.
The official said their enquiry was aimed at preventing the crime from occurring again and it wasn’t focused on whether the depositors would get their money or not.
Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar on Friday told the Senate that hackers had stolen $6 million from the accounts of 6,000 BankIslami customers within 23 minutes last month.
“The stolen amount was not withdrawn from anyone’s bank account. Rather the issue is between the commercial bank and an insurance company,” he said.
Azhar further added that “the top bank has further tightened the procedure of cross-border money transactions”.
Meanwhile, in a written response to a question by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, Finance Minister Asad Umar stated that on Nov 6, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had “categorically rubbished reports of data hack”.
“The SBP asserts that except for BankIslami, it didn’t receive any complaint of data hacking from any bank, or law enforcement agencies,” the finance minister wrote in his response.
“However, on Oct 27, certain cash amount was hacked through international ATMs,” the minister further said.
