STANDARD CHARTERED ACCOUNTS HACKED BY CYBER CRIMINALS IN PAKISTAN

Hackers have managed to break into Standard Chartered ATMs and withdraw thousands of Pakistani Rupees from the bank accounts of unknowing customers. As of now, it only appears that bank account holders in Pakistan have been affected by the hack.

Reports

As of this point, news reports suggest that cyber criminals have succeeded in withdrawing thousands of Pakistani Rupees from from the hacked accounts. No figure has been put to the number of customers affected by the hack, nor is there any clarity of the money that was stolen. However, we do know that the money was withdrawn and moved overseas to UK in a matter of seconds. Some customers received messages from the bank, while some only came to know about it when they tried to withdraw from their accounts.  Some customers claimed that initially the bank replied positively and were told that they would get their money back soon while others were turned away and asked to approach the fraud department of the bank.

Standard Chartered officials have said they take such incidents “very seriously.” Additionally, they said they’re continually monitoring and upgrading their ATMs for the safety of their clients and have taken measures “to further minimize skimming attempts” on their ATMs.

The hackers did not stop at ATMs and have even exploited debit cards with many customers reporting that they have been forced to reissue them. it is not uncommon for attackers to use ATM skimming in which they use a skimming device that looks like part of an ATM to steal card numbers and PINs. They then use the numbers to make fake copies of debit cards.

At this point it is not known whether the hack attack on Standard Chartered Bank is a global one or only limited to Pakistan. We will update this story as when we get more information.