MTN and Airtel Uganda Suspend Mobile Money Services After Massive Hack
Telecom giants, MTN and Airtel Uganda have temporarily suspended all mobile money service transactions between their networks after unidentified hackers compromised their systems.
MTN, Airtel and Stanbic Bank Uganda are said to be the biggest casualties of the attack. The hackers broke into the system of Pegasus Technologies, a third-party integrating service provider which links the mobile money systems of telecom companies with banks, and reportedly siphoned billions of shillings from MTN, Airtel and Stanbic Bank Uganda.
MTN Uganda (55%) and Airtel Uganda (35%) possess a combined 90% of the mobile money market share in the country and hold escrow accounts with Stanbic Bank Uganda which facilitates majority of the mobile money transactions. Unconfirmed reports claim that Airtel may have lost over 1.5 billion shillings while MTN might have lost about twice that amount after the hack.
Photo courtesy of Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion.
Source: Technext (link opens in a new window)
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