ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Friday the official Twitter handle of its embassy in Serbia had been recovered, hours after it was hacked and displayed messages criticizing Prime Minister Imran Khan for record-breaking inflation in the country. 

Not just Twitter, but the Pakistani embassy’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram were hacked as well, the embassy confirmed. However, the accounts have now been recovered. 

“The messages posted during that period were not from the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia,” the Pakistani embassy said in a tweet. “The accounts now stand restored.” 

The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia were hacked. The messages posted during that period were not from the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia. The accounts now stand restored@ForeignOfficePk

— Pakistan Embassy Serbia (@PakinSerbia) December 3, 2021

Criticizing the prime minister, the now-deleted tweet read: “With inflation breaking all previous records, how long do you expect @ImranKhanPTI that we government official[s] will remain silent and keep working for you without been paid for past 3 months & our children been forced out of school due to non-payment of fees.” 

“Is this #NayaPakistan?” the message read, adding, “I am sorry @ImranKhanPTI, am not left with another option.” 

Cyberattacks targeting Pakistani entities are nothing new. The country reported more than 628 defacement attacks that changed the visual appearance of a website or a web page between January and September last year, according to data from cybersecurity services provider, Pakistan Computer Emergency Response Team (PakCERT). 

The attacks have increased after the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2020 and subsequent lockdowns which increased online transactions. 

In October, the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was hit by a cyberattack, with no financial losses were reported. NBP is Pakistan’s leading financial institution with 1,512 branches in the country and 21 overseas. After the attack the bank’s customer service was distrusted, which was restored after a day. 

Poor IT infrastructure has made Pakistani banks a victim of frequent cyberattacks, with industry experts estimating that cyber warfare costs local banks around a billion rupees in losses each year.