State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced to invest Rs 100 million in cyber security systems. A contract has been given to the information technology (IT) department to secure SBP infrastructure from cyber hacking.
Pakistan’s current cyber security law, the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, is not well implemented. Thus, Pakistan ranked 76th on the Global Cybersecurity Index and has an indigent record in cybersecurity. Cyber security is the biggest risk to the financial system of Pakistan. Recently, data of major banks have been hacked, including the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), which disrupted bank services to its customers. The ATM fraud scam has targeted hundreds of account holders, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, only more than 200 people lost millions of rupees from their accounts. Moreover, many abnormal transactions have been detected from different banks.
Cybercrime is a world scale issue regarding the economy because it affects modern computing industries, infrastructure, and conventional business. Cyberattacks cause billions of rupees and reputational loss to an organisation.
The rapid growth of global electronic crime and the complexity of its investigation requires serious actions. To reduce the cost of cybercrime, society should spend less on antivirus software and more on policing the internet. The Human Resources of an organisation should be trained from time to time to make awareness about the latest cyber attacking technique.
