Africa-Press – Lesotho. A group of cybersecurity experts from across the world jetted into Maseru on Monday to help restore the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) system which has been hacked. This was after the CBL called for urgent help on Monday after discovering that it had been hacked.
As it battled to assemble a team of experts to fend off the unprecedented cyber-attack from yet-to-be-identified hackers, the Central Bank immediately shut down the interbank payment system as a precautionary measure.
The suspension has triggered pandemonium in the banking sector because transfers between banks have been stopped. This means nearly the entire national payment system, the cornerstone of the economy, has been put on hold.
Banks cannot settle what they owe each other or transfer to each other. Only intra-bank and international transfers are going through. This is essentially an attack on Lesotho’s economy.
Without the payment system trade, facilitated by the ability to make financial transfers across banks, comes to a near stop. By last night, the experts were still trying to recover and restore the system but there were no indications on how close they were to winning the battle.
Ephraim Moremoholo, the CBL spokesman, told thepost because this is “complex work”, the bank was not yet sure when the system will be restored. “We are not sure when our systems will be up and running again,” said Moremoholo, adding that the team of international, regional and local experts is working around the “clock to restore the system”.
He assured the public that the bank had not suffered any financial or critical data loss but said some “aspects of the system that had not been affected had to be shut down to avert any damage”.
The cyber-attack comes at a time when interbank transactions are at their highest due to the festive season. Some companies and individuals are already feeling the impact of the delayed payments.
With businesses closing early for the Christmas break, many might struggle to pay salaries. Delays in salaries might make what was already looking to be a lacklustre holiday, due to inflation and a stuttering economy, a bleak one.
The secretary general of the Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Fako Hakane, said the “hacking might cause havoc in the business sector”.
“Every business expects to be paid after rendering services, the delay might disrupt businesses,” Hakane said. The attack was discovered on Monday morning and triggered panic in the financial sector.
Taking a cue from the Central Bank, all banks issued brief statements announcing a delay in interbank transfers. There has been an increase in cases of cyber-attacks on companies.
As CBL was battling to restore its system a Ukrainian telecoms company, Kyivstar, was also dealing with a cyber-attack that its chief executive blamed on Russian state hackers.
In August the Industry and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank, suffered a crippling hacking. In August hackers targeted at least 1 000 organisations across the world. In November 2022 hackers attacked Gambia’s central bank.
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