Wajeeul Hassan Rizvi

There is a cyber war happening from last few years across the globe. Everyone is trying to gather as much data as they can to use it for their benefits. This all is happening due to the rapid growth in technology across the world. Technological advancement has been observed in every field of life across the globe, no matter whether it is manufacturing, retail or Service Company. One will find the technology there; same is the case of financial sector.

Due to the ongoing pandemic of Covid 19, everyone is looking for the modes which do not involve human interaction physically. The financial sector has been introduced with the paper less transaction like micro finance banks and online payments for almost everything. We all know that every new advancement comes with both advantages and disadvantages, the major problem arose in the financial sector is the cybercrime in which many people have faced severe monetary losses.

Cyber crime has become one of the major concerns for financial institutions in 21th century, especially when everyone is using the e-banking options for their respective banks that can impact both reputation and customers reach of the financial institutions. The report of the world cybercrime expected the cost of $100 Billion yearly and it is expected to increase up to $25 Trillion in next ten years. There are many ways used by the hackers for the crime. In Pakistan, increased number of cases has been reported during the pandemic.

Pakistan does not have that much of advancement in the financial sector but still there are many problems faced by the e-banking users in which scammers took a lot of money from them by using the tools of e-banking services. The main victims of these crimes observed are the labor class or illiterate class of the society. Micro – finance platforms like JazzCash, EasyPaisa etc. are the main targets of the hackers to take money out of the accounts.  Financial institutions must take measures to make the users feel safe, otherwise many micro-finance banking users will be keeping the cash in liquid form that does not help the economy to grow.

To prevent this crime, regulatory bodies and financial institutions must work together. The first step must be educating the user about the security protocols and how their security can be breached like OTP and Security verification code etc.  The labor class or most of the users of micro finance does not have the confidence to use the platform in Pakistan that leverage the scammers with a good opportunity to perform the crime also the password strength and its importance should be communicated to the user by the financial institutions.

The cyber crime cannot be eradicated completely from any sector because of the rapid change in information technology all across the world but the risk can be minimized on the individual level by taking the appropriate steps. These steps should be communicated with the user.

The writer is a student