Flutterwave, Africa’s largest startup by private valuation, was caught in a hack last month that saw more than £2.9 billion (about $4.2 million) lost from accounts, according to local tech publication Techpoint Africa.
According to documents seen by this publication and reviewed by TechCrunch, an unknown actor transferred funds to 28 accounts in 63 transactions in early February. A police investigation is ongoing because Flutterwave has filed a complaint through his lawyers and law enforcement, interacting with the missing funds, and is seeking to freeze accounts at 27 financial institutions, Techpoint Africa said. reported.
Several tweets about the alleged hack also emerged over the weekend.Several Provided information about hacking, other complained Regarding frozen accounts that may be related to hacking. According to Techpoint Africa, a motion has been filed for 107 accounts to be placed on a lien/Post-No-Debit (PND), including his fifth beneficiary of these accounts. This directive restricts bank customers from withdrawing funds from their accounts.
The cause and method of the attack remain unknown.However, one assumption from Online commentary It is possible that the hack was done through social engineering. This means that the merchant’s key has been compromised, giving the hacker access to the money in his Flutterwave account.
Flutterwave, meanwhile, denied being hacked through a statement on the matter.
At Flutterwave, we understand that your personal and financial information is of the utmost importance. We take this responsibility seriously and understand that potential security breaches may cause anxiety and concern to our customers. We guarantee that Flutterwave has not been hacked. As a financial institution, we monitor transactions and identify suspicious activity through our transaction monitoring system and 24-hour fraud desk. We work with other financial institutions and law enforcement to keep our ecosystem safe.
During routine checks of our transaction monitoring system, we observed anomalous trends in transactions in some users’ profiles. Our team will immediately begin a review (in line with standard operating procedures) to confirm that some users may be affected who have not enabled some of the recommended security settings. clarified.
We want to make sure the user has not lost their funds. We are also proud that our security measures addressed the issue before it harmed our users.
Our commitment to keeping our users’ financial information safe is why we invest heavily in security initiatives such as regular audits, certifications, and licensing such as PCI-DSS & ISO 27001. They are in line with global information security best practices. management.
We hope you continue to trust us to make Flutterwave work for your business needs with peace of mind. Our commitment is to enable your business to grow while keeping your financial information safe and secure.
This is a developing story…
