Muscat: Oman’s Bank Dhofar has denied that its security system was hacked in response to rumours circulating on social media.
The bank affirmed that all accounts are protected under guaranteed insurance. It explained that the request for clients to change their password and the scaling back of the withdrawal limit to 200 Omani riyals instead of 600 riyals is a precautionary measure taken by the bank to preempt any hacking attempts pertaining to ATM cards.
The bank stressed that the bank security system had not been hacked but a few ATM cards had been compromised.
The bank informed the holders of those ATM cards immediately and the issue was resolved by specialists with the bank.
The bank affirmed that the withdrawal limit from ATM machines had been restored to normal levels on Saturday.
Bank Dhofar is the second-largest lender by assets in Oman.
It may be recalled that hackers had in 2013 pulled off a 15-million riyal heist targeting Bank Muscat ATMs using 12 pre-paid travel cards. Later, six persons, all residents of New York City, were accused of being members of a global cybercrime organisation that stole Mastercard Inc debit card information, and later arrested.
