KAMPALA: Unidentified hackers broke into the systems of Pegasus Technologies, a company that integrates mobile money transactions between telcos, banks, and other local, regional, and international money transfer services, making off with a yet to be known sum, but said to be in billions of Shillings.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that over Shs 1.5 billion might have been lost by Airtel while MTN being the mobile money giant is believed to have lost more than that amount.
Following the system compromise, bank to mobile money and e-wallet services between banks and the telecoms have been suspended. Several customers report having experienced transaction issues over the weekend as the hackers reportedly withdrew the money from various mobile money agents across the country.
Below is a joint statement from Stanbic, Airtel and MTN Uganda.
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.
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.
The October 5 statement was signed off by Anne Juuko, chief executive Stanbic Bank Uganda, Wim Vanhelleputte chief executive officer MTN Uganda and VG Somasekhar, managing director Airtel Uganda.
