Capital Bank foils hacking attempt
Isaac Pinielo | Friday February 24, 2017 18:00
BusinessWeek has learnt that the hackers tried to compromise the bank’s swift account by using malware (malicious software) downloaded from an internal email.
Swift is an acronym for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication that provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information on financial transactions.
Capital Bank managing director, Jaco Viljoen confirmed that there was an attempted hacking but said there were no losses for the bank or customers.
“I’m unfortunately not able to provide any detail in line with our confidentiality policies. All I can confirm is that we managed to prevent the attack as a result of the IT (information technology) security we have in place,” he said.
Attempts to get a comment from the serious crimes squad of the Botswana Police Service where the matter was allegedly reported were not fruitful.
However, it is understood that the latest cyber attack on Capital Bank is just one of the incidents that have surfaced in recent times.
Chief executive officer of the Bankers Association of Botswana (BAB), Oabile Mabusa said although there are no statistics available, there have been incidents of attempted hacking in various other local banks apart from Capital Bank.
He said the bankers association is currently developing a portal where they will monitor the extent of cybersecurity incidents.
“The portal will be meant to monitor such incidents and we expect it to kick off during the course of this year,” Mabusa said.
In recent years, Botswana has emerged among the top 10 most-attacked by cybercriminals leading to IT experts advising companies to strengthen their information security.
It was said while Botswana’s financial sector and foreign-owned companies have generally adopted a stringent approach to cyber security, most organisations in public and private sectors need to do a lot to internalise common practices of information security controls.