NBP says operation to restore system affected by cyberattack is in progress

Despite the cyberattack, one thousand branches of the bank have been rendering services as usual, a bank's statement stated.

"One thousand branches of the bank have processed 800,000 transactions worth Rs 286 billion," the statement said, adding that 200,000 customers of the bank have withdrawn Rs5 billion through ATMs machines.

The bank further said in the statement that the restoration work of the remaining branches will be completed this week.

It should be recalled that last week, the NBP had reported a cyberattack on its servers which has impacted “some of the bank’s services.”

However, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had said that no financial loss or data breach had been observed.

“NBP has reported a cyber security-related incident which is being investigated. NBP has not observed any data breach or financial loss,” the central bank had announced on its official Twitter handle.

Meanwhile, it had further clarified that no other bank had reported such an incident.

1/2 Some fake news regarding cybersecurity attack on banks is in circulation including remarks attributed to Chief Spokesman, Mr. Abid Qamar. According to these fake news, 9 banks have been affected by the attack and that money has been withdrawn and data stolen.

— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) November 1, 2021

The central bank had further said it was monitoring the situation closely to ensure the safety and soundness of the banking system.

Confirming the news, the National Bank said that in the late hours of October 29 and early morning of October 30, a cyberattack on the bank's servers was detected, which impacted some of its services.

The bank said that "immediate steps" were taken to isolate the affected systems. “At this point, no customer or financial data has been compromised,” it stated.

“Remediation efforts are underway using industry-leading subject matter experts including international resources where ever required,” the bank said in a statement.

It further added that currently, NBP's services to its customers are disrupted.

However, the bank stressed that the bank is working to address the breach and is confident that essential customer services will be restored by Monday morning.