South Africa’s former finance minister, Tito Mboweni has had his bank account raided by hackers.
This is according to a report by Sowetan Live, which alleged that a sum of about R19 000 was stolen from his bank account.
“Somebody hacked into my cheque account and started taking money out. I noticed this around 7pm. My banking app informs me when there are transactions in my account. So there were transactions that had nothing to do with me,” Mboweni was quoted as saying.
Mboweni is also a former Reserve Bank governor of South Africa. He served as minister of finance in the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa from 2018 to 2021.
Mboweni was the eighth governor of the South African Reserve Bank and the first Black South African to hold the post.
The country’s former finance boss went on to say that the bank was investigating the incident and he did not see the need to open a case with the police.
Some South Africans took to Twitter to react to the news.
Take a look at some of their reactions below:
https://t.co/JwICVOdYik Discussion | Tito Mboweni's bank account hacked
— Facts may be Facts but is it the truth? (@SouthAfricansP1) October 3, 2022
This means no pilchards for this month pic.twitter.com/UseY2P0bTN
— Bongani (@Bongani_MKJ) October 2, 2022
Still using a bank? Really?
— T-man (@tk_bigboy) October 3, 2022
Not even your president does that....what went into yoir brain?
Was your password "Luckystar"?
— rōnin (@Blcktyde) October 2, 2022
Doesn’t every ANC hide their money under the mattress kanti pic.twitter.com/8PJSXEHn1N
— Dr.STAN_KRUGER🇮🇹 (@krugersville) October 2, 2022
SA fertile ground for cyber criminals
IT security experts have warned that cyber criminals are working overtime developing new tactics to avoid detection.
Since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, cyber crime has been on a considered rise all over the world and locally too.
Several systems of government departments or entities have been hacked, while big private corporations like TransUnion, Experian and DisChem, among others, have been subject to cyber crimes by hackers who demanded a ransom.
In the case of the attacks on TransUnion and Experian, the personal information of over 54 million credit-active people in the country was breached as hackers demanded a ransom of over $15m in the TransUnion incident.
In Experian’s case, over 700 000 business entities and 24 million personal records were exposed.
Cyber experts in South Africa are now sounding the warning about the consequences of attacks on companies, that they can be far-reaching and devastating.
According to NordVPN security experts, hackers can easily set up malicious hotspots in public places and steal people’s personal data.This is a big problem because it puts everyone who uses public wi-fi at risk.
As a safe bet, it’s a good idea to disable your devices’ auto-connect and Bluetooth features so they only connect when you want them to. This way, you can avoid accidentally connecting to an insecure wi-fi network.
BUSINESS REPORT