QNB hackers to leak data from another bank soon; QNB deems it worthy to comment on data breach, maintains no financial impact on customers: Qatar National Bank changed its attitude slightly in a statement on Sunday with regard to news of a data leak of its customers’ information online, which we first noted last week. While the bank had initially said it would not comment on ‘social media rumours’ of a data breach, the bank in a statement on Sunday dropped a bit of the snark, acknowledging: “QNB Group’s Risk Team monitored abnormal activity in our system environment, this was immediately communicated to relevant authorities.” However, the bank insists the “incident will have no financial impact on QNB Group’s customers,” while it also admitted “some of the data recently released in the public domain may be accurate.” No word yet on whether data on clients of the bank’s Egyptian subsidiary is included.

…Meanwhile, the hackers allegedly responsible for the data breach say they are preparing to release customer data from another bank dating back to 2001, Gulf News reported on Monday, citing Mohammad Amin Hasbini, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab Middle East. According to Hasbini, the hackers have Turkish roots, are known as Bozkurtlar, and the breach may be somehow linked to the Syrian conflict. “The motive of the QNB hacking can’t be pinpointed at this stage. Although the bank has claimed it is an attack on its reputation, there could be a ‘financial angle’ as these professional hackers are hired by someone with a motive, which could be from tarnishing someone’s reputation to making financial gains from personal data of customers,” said Stephen Bailey, who heads the cyber security team in PA Consulting’s security practice in the region. “But at this stage, it is difficult to believe anyone hacking into a bank’s data system just for defaming the institution,” a claim made by QNB in their statement on Sunday.