UAE banks replace credit cards after security breach

At least two banks have issued warnings to their customers and blocked their cards in order to issue replacement cards. The banks are in the process of reissuing several affected credit cards following an online security breach. The banks had earlier sent SMS notifications to some of its cardholders informing them of the blockage and that it was just a precautionary measure.

In July 2015, local media had reported about 12 UAE banks being hit by a Trojan virus, Infostealer.Dyre. The virus mainly gets into machines that operate Windows and installs malware to steal banking information. It is not known whether the latest breach is related to the virus reports.

However, online security company Kaspersky Lab in its latest announcement has warned that mobile banking has remained a main target for mobile threats.