KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Monday categorically denied the rumours of cyber attack on several Pakistani banks.

After the cyber attack on National Bank of Pakistan's computer system on Saturday, there were rumours in the market that some other banks have also been affected by the cyber attack and their customers' data has been stolen.

However, the State bank Monday, through its Twitter account, clarified that no other bank is affected.

No bank other than NBP faced cyberattack, says SBP

"Some fake news regarding cyber security attack on banks is in circulation including remarks attributed to chief spokesman Abid Qamar. According to these fake news, 9 banks have been affected by the attack and that money has been withdrawn and data stolen," the SBP said. The SBP, rejecting this news, has clarified that no bank, other than NBP, has faced a cyber attack. Further, no financial loss or data breach has been observed so far, it added.

The SBP further said that it is monitoring the situation closely and it will share any update or information about the incident through its official channels. Meanwhile, NBP Monday reported continuing successful operational recovery from the cyber attack on its systems, which occurred on October 29th, 2021. According to NBP, more than 1,000 branches operated across the country and provided regular banking services by processing 800,000 transactions of over Rs. 286 billion.

All ATMs were available for withdrawals by NBP clients with transactions of over Rs5 billion being reported by more than 200,000 clients. This was a significant achievement by team NBP as the first day of the month is critical given disbursement of salaries and pensions, NBP spokesman said. National Bank remained confident of returning to fully normalized operations over the rest of this week. In addition, Imran Riaz, Additional Director FIA Cyber Crime Cell also visited NBP head office. After the visit, he said that NBP data has not been stolen and the bank is providing banking services as usual.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021