Uganda: Cyber criminals steal 16 million euros from the central bank
A gang of cyber criminals allegedly from Southeast Asia has succeeded in stealing 16 million euros from Uganda's central bank.
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In a cyber attack, criminals from South East Asia have succeeded in stealing the equivalent of around 16 million euros from Uganda's central bank. This was reported by the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor, but according to other media reports, "Benki Kuu ya Uganda" has already managed to recover more than half of the loot. According to the Daily Monitor, the gang, which calls itself "Waste", infiltrated the bank's IT infrastructure and transferred 62.4 billion Ugandan shillings from an account. It is not known whether the money was the actual target or whether the unknown criminals simply stole what they found.
Indications of help from insiders
According to the report, the theft took place two weeks ago, after which even President Yoweri Museveni dealt with the case. The police were initially tasked with the investigation, but the Central African country's secret services later took over. The central bank itself tried to keep the matter under wraps as much as possible. There was concern that the theft could draw attention to the fact that the central bank has not had a single head responsible for this for almost three years. In addition, anonymous sources had spoken of indications that the cyber criminals had received help from insiders.
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There are no further details about the thieves' actions so far; according to the Daily Monitor, an external company has been commissioned to carry out an investigation. The news agency Reuters also explains that banks and other financial institutions in Uganda are repeatedly the victims of similar cyber attacks. However, the police say that some of the victims are reluctant to admit this publicly. The fear is that this would alienate customers. However, central banks of states are rarely victims. Eight and a half years ago, tens of millions of US dollars were stolen from Bangladesh's central bank, and it was only by chance that the thieves did not manage to steal almost a billion.
(mho)
