Qatar National Bank cyberattack ‘aimed at bank's reputation’
QNB Group has said the recent data breach on its financial systems was an attack on the bank rather than the individuals who had their banking details posted online.
Files from QNB were posted online last week, revealing the names and passwords of a large number of customers.
The 1.5gb trove of leaked documents included the bank details, telephone numbers and dates of birth of several journalists for satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera and many other top officials.
In a statement issued today, QNB said its risk team alerted the “relevant authorities” once the abnormal activity was detected in its system environment.
“We also took immediate steps and our systems are fully secure and operational. The attack only targeted a portion of Qatar based customers,” QNB said.
“While some of the data recently released in the public domain may be accurate, much of it was constructed and contains a mixture of information from the attack as well as other non-QNB sources, such as personal data from social media channels. We believe the nature of this incident is fundamentally an attempted attack on QNB Group’s reputation and not specifically targeted at our customers.”
Similar to last week’s statement, the bank said “the incident will have no financial impact on QNB Group’s customers”.
“We’re taking every measure to protect the privacy of our customers and have engaged an external third party expert to review all our systems to ensure no vulnerabilities exist,” it said.
“All our customers’ accounts are secure, and as always, we encourage customers to be vigilant, taking the usual precautions of frequently changing their usernames and passwords through QNB Group internet banking. Our call centre is also available 24/7 and any concerned customer can speak to a representative if they have any inquiries regarding their accounts.”
The statement said that QNB regretted any inconvenience caused to its customers.
“We at QNB Group place the highest priority on data security and deploy the strongest measures possible to ensure we maintain your trust and the integrity of your information,” the bank said.
Courtesy: albawaba.com
perdian: I know this and I never said you can.... I was just fed up of the spin - why not just be straightforward ... The public is not stupid
Brit, I will agree with WT, You cannot make a 100% guarantee to any system - no matter how high tech the system is. Believe me, I know, it is my field of specialty. :D
I can understand you, man.
Sorry WT, but after estate agents, PR gurus and spin doctors are my pet hate :O(
Brit, they cannot guarantee 100% security, that's why they give you some 'blah, blah'. Forgive them.
This is where the public usually gets irritated because of the use of PR gurus..
"While some of the data recently released in the public domain may be accurate..."
Why not just say that the bank suffered a malicious cyber attack - as have other entities around the globe. QNB immediately initated procedures to enhance security and ensure that this does not occur again. In the meanwhile , QNB can assure the customers that their accounts or personal details were not compromised .....
Wouldn't it be easier ?