The impact of a hack on telecom company MTN seems to have no end in sight if the latest message to customers is something to go by.
According to a message sent to customer, the telecom will switch off data and voice bundles on Tuesday night to person what they are calling an upgrade.
“Y’ello! There will be a planned system upgrade on 6th Oct 2020 from 00:00Hrs to 03:00AM . During this period, data, voice and MoMo services will be interrupted,” reads the message to customers.
This comes on the heels of a reported hack on MTN and another telecom company, Airtel, something that forced the two to suspend Mobile Money transactions between the two networks.
THE HACK
According to reports, hackers last week broke into mobile money integrator system, making off with unspecified billions belonging Airtel, MTN, Stanbic, and other financial institutions.
A reportedly shs1.3bn was swept off by the hackers.
The reports add that the hackers whose identity is yet to be established, 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.
Leading telecom giants, Airtel and MTN Uganda, as well as Stanbic Bank, Uganda’s largest bank that also backs up most of the mobile money transactions, were severely affected.
However, in a joint statement released today, 5th October 2020, Wim Vanhelleputte, and VG Somasekhar, the CEOs of MTN Uganda, and Airtel Uganda respectively, admitted there was an “incidentâ€, but did not give details only saying there were ‘unprecedented technical challenges.’
It is alleged that some unscrupulous people hacked into the Bank’s system and started wiring money into other people’s mobile money and bank accounts.
Officials from all the institutions are doing all they can to play down the scary incident even as the impact of the hack deepens.
Ronald Azairwe, Managing Director Pegasus Technologies Limited, could neither deny nor confirm the incident.
“Sadly I can’t comment on that. I can’t confirm or deny anything of the sort. I can’t speak about it. MTN/Stanbic/Airtel should be able to tell you whether it is Pegasus or not,†he told CEO Magazine.
Pegasus Technologies handles MTN to Airtel and Airtel to MTN transactions as well as the respective telco to bank payments. Pegasus also handles Stanbic Bank’s Flexipay, a cashless solution that allows the bank’s customers to pay for goods and services via mobile money.