Banks, power networks among targets of potential AI-powered cyberattacks, warns NCERT

Pakistan’s banking systems and critical infrastructure face growing risks from artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cyberattacks, the National Cyber Emergency Response Team (NCERT) has warned in an advisory on emerging AI-related cyber threats.

According to the advisory, potential targets include banks’ core banking systems, digital banking platforms, oil and gas facilities, water utilities, electricity networks, power generation and distribution systems, manufacturing and transport infrastructure.

It warned that manipulation of account balances displayed to customers could cause panic among users.

The advisory said AI, automated bots, botnets and agentic tools were increasing the speed and complexity of cyberattacks. Banks’ application programming interfaces (APIs), payment systems and customer-facing applications were also identified as potential targets.

NCERT recommended monitoring automated login attempts, repeated authentication failures, credential-stuffing attempts, unusual API requests, changes to application configurations and irregular transaction patterns.

The advisory also referred to cyberattacks on refrigeration and freezer systems at supermarkets in Europe, which demonstrated the potential physical and commercial consequences of attacks on connected operational systems. However, it noted that AI involvement in those incidents had not been confirmed.

It urged institutions to strengthen integrity checks for customer applications and core banking records, conduct independent transaction reviews and monitor bot-driven activity.

The team also advised organisations to assess their preparedness against AI-powered automated cyberattacks.