Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning - Dr. Anil Jayantha has made a clarification with regard to the recent cyber hacking incident at a department of the Ministry of Finance.
Making a special statement, he said that the hackers had fraudulently obtained funds intended for the Australian Export Finance Agency.
Noting that the communications and payment instructions between the Treasury and the relevant Australian were done via emails, the minister explains that the hackers had breached the email mechanism used in the process.
He also added that they had also attempted to obtain funds associated with a payment to be made to India and the fraud had come to light after this attempt.
He further said :
"Accordingly, when suspicions arose over a change in account details, the Treasury immediately alerted the Sri Lanka Police Cyber Crimes Investigation Division and the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) at the earliest stage. They conducted a lengthy investigation. They began the investigation from the point where communication was initiated regarding the debt restructuring and repayment. As a result, they were able to find that the money owed to the Australian Export Finance Agency had been diverted to the hackers’ accounts. Accordingly, a complaint was immediately lodged with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and an investigation is underway. In addition, an internal inquiry by a team of 02 Additional Treasury Secretaries has investigated to determine whether any disciplinary issues have arisen from the officers involved in this communication transaction, and accordingly, disciplinary action has been taken based on their recommendations.”
The Minister also urged the public not to be misled by misinformation circulating regarding the incident.
Related News:
https://srilankamirror.com/news/finance-ministry-says-complaints-lodged-after-cyber-breach-at-ministry-dept/
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