Hacking fears rock Stanbic Bank over erroneous money transfers

Fears are rife over possible breach of Stanbic Bank’s systems through hacking that resulted to erroneous random money transfers to existing bank clients and non-clients even as the lender admitted the “disruption” but claimed to have regained control of the system have since restored the services.

According to insider sources, the bank has been experiencing a fraudulent system failure where the bank was unknowingly sending unspecified sums of money to different mobile money users through their bank to wallet service in what is suspected to be an elaborate online fraud.

For the second day now, despite the bank’s admission of the breach and assertions of having stabilised the systems, bank clients are ranting on social sites over delays of online transactions especially payments deducted from their Mpesa but not reflecting to the recipients’’ account.

When contacted directly by The Informer Media Group on the status and extent of the breach, how full-proof the bank’s firewall systems are and safety of the clients’ deposits, the newly appointed Stanbic Bank Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara remained tight-lipped.

Also, details of the ongoing investigations remain scanty whether the breach to the bank systems was internally generated or external attack.

The extent of the suspected breach and the amount of money erroneously sent out is not quite clear it is suspected to runs to tens of millions.

For two consecutive days now, the social media has been abuzz with confessions of receipt of free money from the bank, claims the bank acknowledged as “system disruptions”.

“We wish to notify the public that earlier today, we experienced system disruptions on our digital customer channels affecting Mobile Banking App, USSD, Internet Banking and Omni Channel. We have since restored services on our USSD and Omni Channel and are working with our service partners to resolve the mobile banking app disruption in the shortest time possible.”

The statement added: “We have contacted the affected customers and would like to re-assure our customers and the public that their data is safe, as we bring mobile banking app back online. We will continue to update customers on the progress to restore services. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.” A statement dispatched to newsrooms yesterday afternoon read in part.

It is alleged that some unscrupulous tech savvy shadowy individuals hacked into the bank’s system and started wiring money into other people’s mobile money and bank accounts.

This prompted the bank to suspend all online banking transactions until they recovered control and restored the system.

Oigara was appointed last December as the CEO for Kenya and South Sudan.

In 2020, Uganda’s Stanbic Bank subsidiary lost 10billion Ugandan shillings in a telecommunication scam allegedly masterminded by a bank employee.

We wish to advise that we are experiencing a technical issue which is under investigation. Apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused.

Cases of hacking and fraud targeting financial institutions have been associated to massive bank runs.