The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a cyber security alert after its employees started receiving emails from unidentified senders.
In a letter issued on July 6, the ECP warned its employees that a ransomware attack was “trying to steal information” through phishing methods.
All ECP staff was ordered not to open emails which could possibly lead to precious data being leaked.
The letter, written by ECP Information Security Specialist Naveed Ahmed Kandhir, included a screengrab of an email sent to an ECP official that asked the recipient to open an attached RAR file titled “Cabinet”.
Referring to the email, the ECP said that “someone is […] sending the email to all” ECP officials.
It “warned” the recipient that “details for the above are not submitted” and asked them to provide them by July 11. The email also shared an alphanumeric five-digit passcode without specifying its purpose.
Notably, last month, Pakistan’s national security had once again been compromised due to negligence at the National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT). Cyber attackers managed to breach the security of the cheque clearing institution, gaining unauthorised access to data and forcing the banking system to resort to a manual system despite the prevalence of digital technology.
