Category Archives: Pakistan

Latest Pakistan bank-card fraud looks like an actual breach, researchers say

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A spike in payment-card fraud in Pakistan over the past six months now appears to involve a possible breach of at least one bank’s internal systems, according to researchers with New York-based threat intelligence company Gemini Advisory. Previous reports — including research by Moscow-based cybersecurity company Group-IB — had noted two major dumps of Pakistani payment-card data on the dark web market Joker’s Stash in October and November, as well as further sales in January of this year. Gemini Advisory says it now appears that the card-information dumps point to a more aggressive level of hacking beyond point-of-sale attacks. “While fraudsters generally acquire card and PIN data with card skimmers and cameras or overlays, the January 24 and January 30, 2019 breach included such data in large quantities pertaining to a single bank – Meezan Bank Ltd.,” Gemini Advisory says. “Gemini analysts therefore assess with moderate confidence that the compromised records posted […]

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Hacked Pakistani bank cards for sale on the dark web again

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Information about thousands of hacked Pakistani bank card accounts appeared on the dark web this week, researchers said, following similar incidents in late October that roiled the country’s financial system and government. Hackers put the purloined details from 177,878 cards for sale on the dark web market Joker’s Stash around Nov. 13, according to Moscow-based cybersecurity company Group-IB, with 150,632 of those records appearing to come from Pakistani banks. An Oct. 27 breach led at least one bank, Karachi-based BankIslami, to shut down certain operations. Soon afterward, the cybersecurity organization PakCERT found thousands of Pakistani bank card records on the dark web. The latest dump does not include cards from BankIslami, Group-IB notes in its blog post about the breach. “The banks affected by this breach included major Pakistani financial organizations such as, Habib Bank, MCB Bank Limited, Allied Bank Limited and many others,” the post said. “Habib Bank was affected most by […]

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Pakistan’s banks and law enforcement clash over severity of hack

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Pakistan’s top criminal investigation agency and the country’s central bank are at odds Wednesday over the breadth of a reported cyberattack that affected customers of at least one commercial bank. An official from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said Tuesday that most of the country’s major banks had been affected by breaches that began in October, but the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) responded with a statement that it “categorically rejects such reports.” “There is no evidence to this effect nor has this information been provided to SBP by any bank or law enforcement agency,” SBP said about comments from FIA Cybercrimes Director Mohammad Shoaib that were reported by the news site Geo.tv. Most of the public information about the cyberattack stems from a Nov. 4 advisory by PakCERT, one of Pakistan’s top cybersecurity organizations, which pointed to activity by Karachi-based BankIslami. The bank “noticed abnormal transactions” on Oct. 27 and “shutdown its international payment scheme.” Other banks followed with […]

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Data from “almost every Pakistani Bank” stolen & sold on the dark web

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By Waqas
Pakistani banks have debuted on the Dark Web with almost all of the country’s banks becoming victims of a devastating data hack. It is undoubtedly the biggest ever hacking campaign launched against banks in Pakistan. It is estimated that hacke… Continue reading Data from “almost every Pakistani Bank” stolen & sold on the dark web→

Hacker leaks Snapchat’s source code on Github

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By Waqas
Pakistani Hacker Posted Authentic Snapchat Source Code on GitHub – Snapchat’s source code is stolen…can there be a bigger news than that? Perhaps there is! Not only that the source code has been stolen but also posted on Microsoft-owned … Continue reading Hacker leaks Snapchat’s source code on Github→

Criminal hacking group targets U.S., U.K. agencies in Pakistan

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A criminal hacking group concentrated in Pakistan has in recent months carried out a string of attacks on American, British, Russian, and Spanish governmental organizations, according to new research from cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks. The hacking collective known as the Gordon Group “has been performing criminal operations against targets across the globe, often using shared infrastructure with their targeted attack operations,” Palo Alto Networks’ threat intelligence arm, Unit 42, said in a blog post Thursday. The group has been targeting foreign government agencies operating in Pakistan, partly through malware-laced Microsoft Word documents, the researchers found.  “The spear phishing emails involved in this campaign would most often originate from Gmail accounts masquerading as legitimate individuals, such as a prominent lieutenant colonel in the Pakistani military,” they wrote. It is unclear if the attackers are all based in Pakistan, but they claim to be through online personas, according to the research. The […]

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Pakistani military leverages Facebook Messenger for wide-ranging spyware campaign

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Security researchers discovered two pieces of malware used by the Pakistani military in order to to spy on specific targets in the Middle East, Afghanistan and India, according to the mobile security company Lookout. The malware, dubbed Stealth Mango and Tangelo, appears to have successfully compromised government officials, medical professionals and civilians in Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. Targets were compromised via Android and possibly iOS. Government officials in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Iran were indirectly compromised after interacting with direct Stealth Mango victims. Instead of sophisticated and expensive exploits, attackers relied on phishing through third-party app stores and possibly physical access to targeted devices. The campaign is ongoing as of April 2018. The malware, developed by independent contractors, is constantly being updated. Developers are releasing up to two new versions per week. “What’s interesting is the ability, insight and amount […]

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Hacktivists expected to move on from vandalizing websites to more dangerous hacks, report states

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Website defacement is increasingly becoming a staple in the toolkit of activists looking to bring attention to their causes online, according to a report from cybersecurity company Trend Micro. This sort of hacktivism has experts worried that the types of hackers behind these seemingly benign attacks will eventually turn to more threatening cybercrime. Website defacement is a form of protest by which hackers take over a domain and replace the usual website with propaganda promoting a particular cause. It’s a protest sign that blocks access to a website that the hackers in most cases see as an enemy to their cause. The Trend Micro report highlights seven geopolitical events and conflicts that have been a major motivator for defacement incidents. They include: Israeli military operations and land occupations in Palestinian territories French magazine Charlie Hebdo publishing a controversial cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in 2o15 border disputes between India and Pakistan Syrian airstrikes […]

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