PostBank has confirmed that it has lost millions after it suffered a cyber crime attack in which money was siphoned into bank accounts and withdrawn before it could be detected.
Account balances on several individual accounts were inflated on the database and thereafter cash was withdrawn from ATMs over some time.
amaBhungane, Centre for Investigative Journalism published a report titled ‘R90m hack at Postbank kept under wraps’ at the end of March 2022. In the report, they alleged that the PostBank was attempting to keep the cyber attack under wraps.
The PostBank however disputes this and says it was being cautious so as not to compromise the integrity of the investigation.
Kevin Maartens, Postbank Acting CEO says the investigation is currently ongoing and that further processes of implementing additional security enhancement measures are being put in place.
Dewald van Rensburg, author of the piece explained that it was quite clear how the cyber criminals stole the money and that they accessed the PostBanks systems internally.
He explained, “it’s clear that they accessed the PostBank’s network internally, they most likely worked at the PostBank or worked for a contractor in the PostBank with access and there were three terminals accessing the network”.
Van Rensburg says that the logins were deleted which makes it difficult to detect who did it, but it can be determined when the act was done.
The PostBank has confirmed that no grant recipients have lost money as a result of the crime, as this money was insured.
However, Van Rensburg says that their insurance amounts to around R75 million. He adds that PostBank is currently struggling to secure insurance.
