KARACHI: Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) spokesman said that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued guidelines for establishing cyber security in 2017 and these guidelines comprehensively covered all aspects of technology. Dismissing recent reports circulating in media regarding data hacking of Pakistani banks, the PBA spokesman said that the information technology (IT) of only one bank was compromised but other than that there was no breach. He said that the banking industry was moving towards digital era and banks were continuously developing, strengthening and implementing risk-based controls in their environments. The spokesperson advised banking customers not to respond to requests for their confidential and personal information via various channels including SMS, email (with or without embedded links), phone calls etc to protect themselves against any identity theft or fraud. The PBA, in its endeavor to support industry as well as SBP, had already established a dedicated forum for cyber security, according to the spokesman. The spokesman said that it was important to understand difference between fraudulent transactions and hacking attempts. ‘Fraudulent transactions can be successful without hacking the bank. When a cheque book or a leaf of a cheque book is lost, it can be used by fraudsters to steal money. Likewise, if a credit or debit card is lost or stolen, it can also be used in fraudulent transactions. Such fraudulent transactions do not mean that the technology infrastructure of the bank has been hacked,’ he explained. ‘Similarly, if data stored in debit or credit card is fraudulently copied or stolen, it can be saved on a duplicate fake card and such a fake card can also be used to do frauds, especially if fraudster also finds out PIN associated with original card,” he added. Published in Daily Times, November 8th 2018.