SIALKOT: Some hackers have deprived sports goods exporter Irfan Mushtaq of €18,000 (Rs3.2 million) by hacking his bank account.

The money had been sent to him by his foreign customers.

SCCI’s Departmental Committee on Media and Cyber Crime Chairman Umer Khalid said the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry had forwarded this fresh case of money hacking [cyber crime] to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

He said more than 70 cases of cyber crime and money hacking against Sialkot exporters had been reported to the SCCI during the last few years. Seven cases [money hacking] were reported in the month of April 2019 alone, he added.

He has sought urgent help and remedy from FIA and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan against the growing incidents of cyber crime in Sialkot.

The committee has expressed grave concern over the rising incidents of money hacking.

Addressing the meeting, Umer Khalid asked the Sialkot exporters to upgrade the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure in their factories to avert such incidents in future. Committee’s senior member Arif Mehmood Sheikh said hackers were targeting small businesses, SMEs and exporters in Sialkot by hacking their computers.

Committee’s secretary Salman Mir told the meeting that SCCI would soon host an awareness-raising seminar at the chamber in which international exporters would give a detailed briefing about computer hacking and data breach laws.

SCCI Senior Vice President Waqas Akram Awan said the major reasons behind the rising incidents of cyber crime were lack of advanced skills of information technology and cyber security.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2019