Largest telecom in Africa warns of cyber incident exposing customer data

The South African telecommunications firm MTN Group mentioned on Thursday it suffered a cyberattack that uncovered the private data of an unknown variety of prospects. 

The Johannesburg-based agency mentioned an “unknown third-party has claimed to have accessed knowledge linked” to components of its system and that the incident “resulted in unauthorised entry to non-public data of some MTN prospects in sure markets.”

South African Police Service and the nation’s Directorate for Precedence Crime Investigation have been knowledgeable of the incident whereas different legislation enforcement businesses in international locations they serve have been notified of the assault. The assertion doesn’t say what number of prospects have been impacted however MTN Group mentioned it’s within the strategy of notifying folks.  

MTN Group operates in additional than 20 international locations and has greater than 200 million subscribers as one of many largest cell operators on this planet. The corporate reported about $9 billion in income final yr, largely as a consequence of its widespread prominence in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria.

“Our core community, billing methods and monetary providers infrastructure stay safe and totally operational,” the corporate claimed. “At this stage we shouldn’t have any data to counsel that prospects’ accounts and wallets have been instantly compromised.”

The corporate didn’t reply to a number of questions on how many individuals have been impacted, what sort of knowledge was stolen and who was behind the assault. No cybercriminal operation has claimed the incident as of Friday. 

Nigerian information shops reported that the cyber incident didn’t have an effect on operations within the nation. 

That is the most recent assault on a South African telecommunications firm after one other main participant within the sector, Cell C, confirmed that knowledge was leaked on the darkish internet following a cyberattack final yr.

South Africa continues to take care of near-constant cyberattacks on its main establishments and corporations, prompting an array of cybersecurity legal guidelines and frameworks designed to handle the problem. Final month the nation’s largest hen producer misplaced greater than $1 million as a consequence of a latest cyberattack that prompted supply delays and different points.

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