Fergie's Tech Blog

South Africa: US$1.852 Million Cyber Theft Foiled

Via Dispatch.co.za.

The Eastern Cape government is under attack from a syndicate of cyberspace hackers who have already swindled millions of rands from its provincial coffers.

An attempt by the syndicate using cyber spyware to steal R15million [US$1.852M] from the Housing, Local Government and Traditional Affairs in Bhisho was foiled just two days ago.

Details of the attempted hi-tech computer scam emerged yesterday, a day after government revealed it had identified at least 26 cases of a syndicate swindling government departments in four provinces, including the Eastern Cape, of over R199m in the past three years.

Provincial Treasury spokesperson Cecile Greyling confirmed that someone had hacked into the system and tried to transfer funds from the Housing Department’s basic account system.

The Daily Dispatch has learnt that the scam involved channelling payments to existing suppliers into bogus accounts.

The attempted theft was stopped in time by an alert computer systems controller.

posted by Fergie @ 6/13/2008 12:07:00 AM