In contrast to the stockings that have spread on the Internet as well as the news making and fake news, which claimed large-scale disruption of banking in Pakistan, including ATM and online banking services, Pakistan’s nCERT revealed the truth that the situation is not so severe.

The hoax resulted from an email with a message about the closure of ATM for several days due to a cyber-attack of ransomware and a word of caution against online purchases and suspicious emails. But all those claims have been dismissed by nCERT which has not received any information of cyber threats or the banking sector services being paralyzed.

The agency has made a move to calm the public that all banking services are functional and that there is no cause for alarm. In this regard, the agency has cautioned the users to exercise good cyber hygiene such as logging out of banking app after use, checking the bank statements frequently and avoid divulging any sensitive information such as PINs, OTPs and passwords to anyone.

Also, nCERT has urged the users to be wary of emails or messages that they never expected especially those with attachments or Links. Thus, such an approach allows the public to reduce the level of the spread of fake news and improve the level of cyber security among the population.