A senior official at Uganda’s finance ministry has confirmed that accounts in the country’s central bank had been hacked but he downplayed the extent of the losses.
The Bank of Uganda had said late on Thursday it was awaiting a police investigation into a news report that offshore hackers stole 62 billion Ugandan shillings ($16.8 million) from the central bank.
State-owned New Vision newspaper reported that hackers, identifying themselves as “Waste”, accessed the Bank of Uganda’s IT systems and illicitly transferred the funds earlier this month.
State minister for finance Henry Musasizi confirmed the hack and said the police’s Criminal Investigations Department and the Auditor General were probing the incident.
