Depositors and investors in financial institutions have a reason to worry over safety of their hard earned income as tech savvy youths resort to sophisticated cyber-attacks organised crime with the troubled NCBA being the latest victim.
Two Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) students Anthony Mwangi Ngige, 21, and Ann Wambui Nyoike, 23, are accused of stealing Sh25.4million through hacking.
In what points to possible widespread bank failures, the duo are also said to have conspired to steal an additional Sh190million from bank headquarters in Upperhill, Nairobi.
While appearing yesterday before Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate Caroline Muthoni, Mwangi and Wambui were charged with two counts of stealing Sh25.4million and another count of conspiring to steal Sh190million together with others not before court through hacking.
The court heard that between October 20 and 22 at NCBA Bank head office in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area.
They denied the charges and were granted Sh500, 000 bail each with an alternative bond of Sh2 million.
The case will be mentioned on November 10, for pre-trial.
Both Mwangi and Wambui had pleaded with the court for lenient bond terms saying that they are second-year students and were about to start exams.
Their lawyer Stephen Arunda told the court his clients would comply with the orders issued.
The court heard that a communication by Ngige to the bank, through his twitter handle indicating that there was a sys-tem breach in the bank, led to the charges.
“The alleged crimes happened on a mobile phone. It is the first accused who informed the bank that there was a system breach through twitter,” argued their lawyer.
The court heard that Wambui was arrested because she was in communication with Ngige during the time the alleged fraud took place.
Their lawyer requested for lenient cash bails of Sh100, 000 but the prosecution opposed the same, on grounds that the amount was too low.
The magistrate released each of them on Sh500,000 cash bail or Sh2 million bond until November 10, when the case will be mentioned.
“They are second-year students at Jkuat and are set to start their exams soon,” Arunda said.
The lawyer said it was a communication from Mwangi to the bank about a system anomaly that led to the prosecution of the two.
“The alleged crimes happened on an IT platform, particularly a mobile phone,” he said.
Mwangi informed the bank that there was a system breach through Twitter.
The accused persons had informed the bank that there was a system breach through Twitter before they were summoned to the bank for inquiry.
They presented themselves and we were not arrested at the time. They were, however, arrested after investigations.
NCBA Bank is yet to recover from last month’s system upgrade gone awry subjecting clients to intermittent services occasion by persistent system breakdown sparking widespread uproar from irate clientele.
However, the bank issued a regret notice over the system failure.
“To our esteemed customers, thank you for your patience as we worked to provide you with a more robust, unified banking system. We deeply regret any inconveniences caused as a result of the system integration and assure you that we are working to resolve the issues quickly,” apologized the bank.
They were upgrading their core banking system between 17th to 21st September in an effort to give their customers a seamless experience.
Because of the upgrade, they announced that all their branches were to be closed from Friday 18th to Monday 21st September.
But after the upgrade, their system integration led to customers experiencing intermittent services.