Mobile money transaction company, Pegasus technologies has suffered a major data breach resulting in the loss of billions of Ugandan Shillings – according to PLM Daily. The breach is said to have impacted telcos, Airtel and MTN Uganda, as well as Stanbic Bank, Uganda’s largest bank.
“Stanbic Bank Uganda, MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda inform the public and their customers that on Saturday 3 October 2020, a third-party service provider experienced a system incident which impacted Bank to Mobile Money transactions. All Bank to Mobile Money/Wallet services have since been temporarily suspended,” reads an official statement from the companies.
“This system incident has had no impact on any balances on both Bank and Mobile Money accounts. Our technical teams are analysing the incident and will restore services as soon as possible. We apologise to all customers for any inconvenience that this has caused and reiterate our commitment to delivering seamless banking and mobile money services.”
MD of Pegasus Technologies, Ronald Azairwe said that he couldn’t deny nor confirm the incident – “Sadly I can’t comment on that. I can’t speak about it. [The affected] should be able to tell you whether it is Pegasus or not.”
The PLM Daily goes on to say, however, that a source has confirmed that hackers broke into the Pegasus system.
“From Thursday night, the hack went on undetected until Saturday. By this time, hackers had sent themselves almost UGX1.3 billion but had managed to withdraw UGX900 million from Airtel Money. We estimate MTN also lost almost twice the same amount of money since they are mobile money leaders. When the fraud has detected all transactions going through Pegasus Technologies, were suspended.”
Edited by Jenna Delport
Follow Jenna Delport on Twitter
Follow IT News Africa on Twitter
