On Saturday (14 August), around 2 am hackers, smashed the federal board of revenue software by Microsoft called Hyper-V and outed all the official websites that have been managed by the tax authority.
The Federal Board of Revenue official website was unreachable as well as the computerized customs clearance system till Sunday evening. FBR revealed to Business Recorder that no information has been compromised.
Nevertheless, most of the front-end functionalities have been changed, which would be rectified in the following 1-2 days. According to the sources, no taxpayer information has been leaked to the hackers, the infornation is secured and would be normal in a day or two. Sources added that there were some abnormalities that already have been stabled and the remaining would be in a day or two.
When it was asked by the sources that if the hackers had kept the taxpayer’s data on sale for US$25,000 to US$30,000. They disperse the inkling and that there is nothing like that happened. To an inquiry on harm caused to the taxpayer’s information during the attack, the sources said the hackers had only damaged the functioning of the website but not information of the taxpayers
On Sunday, The Chairman FBR Asim Ahmad conducted an emergency meeting with the Information Technology team at the head office of the Federal Board of Revenue to manage the issue of the cyber attack on the official website of the Federal Board of Revenue which was closed for 15 august (Saturday).
According to the reports, the Federal Board of Revenue has not drawn on National Information Technology Board or Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) however, National Center for Cyber Security is the most suitable department to deal with cybersecurity.
Until Sunday evening, the Federal Board of Revenue’s all websites including websites, customs clearance WEBOC, sales tax refund status, Tax-Assan, return-filing “IRIS”, FBR-Taxray, E-payment, and e-registration were not working properly.
The Federal Board of Revenue has also closed some servers to put stop to more damage. On Sunday, the IT team of the Federal Board of Revenue and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited were busy fixing the FBR system. Some have been fixed but some would take few days.
Due to the breakdown of the FBR website, the taxpayers were unable to file income tax returns, monthly sales tax returns, and withholding statements.
The Federal Board of Revenue has extended the date of the filing date for the month of the tax return. Still, the Active Taxpayers list on the Federal Board of Revenue is not accessible to taxpayers
The Federal Board of Revenue apologizes for any inconvenience and ensuring of fixing the problem as soon as possible which is expected in the next 48 hours.
