The Ministry of Interior has officially launched an inquiry into a massive cyberattack on the Capital Development Authority (CDA). Earlier this month, hackers targeted the CDA online billing system with a major ransomware attack. Consequently, the breach disrupted critical revenue collection services and severely affected thousands of residents across Islamabad.
On June 19, a major ransomware attack crippled the CDA’s digital infrastructure. Specifically, the compromised system handles property taxes, water charges, and conservancy fees. Furthermore, unknown hackers successfully accessed sensitive billing data. The attackers are now demanding a ransom payment in Bitcoin. In addition, they have threatened to leak the stolen citizen data on the dark web.
In response to the crisis, the Interior Ministry formed a special technical committee. Recently, this committee visited the CDA headquarters to thoroughly investigate the ransomware attack. The experts are currently reviewing the compromised systems. Moreover, they are actively identifying critical weaknesses within the existing digital infrastructure to determine exactly what caused the breach.
Because of the cyberattack, many residents faced serious difficulties paying their bills online. In fact, several banks could not process transactions during the digital outage. Therefore, the CDA has officially extended the payment deadline for water and conservancy charges until July 31.
Meanwhile, CDA officials have reassured the public regarding their data and money. They confirmed that all payments processed before the attack remain completely safe, as authorized banking channels handled those transactions. Currently, technical teams from the CDA, the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), and external cybersecurity firms are working together. They are pushing to fully restore the affected online billing system as quickly as possible.
