Network Problem & Error Allow Bank Customers To Spend Money Even When They Don’t Have

A day after the reported compromise of Ethiopia’s state-owned bank – Commercial Bank of Ethiopia – which reportedly led to a loss of over six billion birr within hours due to fraudulence, the bank has reportedly formed a task force to go after those who took advantage of the digital banking “system failure” to withdraw or transfer huge amounts of money.

Wazema radio reported on Sunday that it had heard about it from close sources – apparently from within the bank. Members of the task force are drawn from security forces and experts from the National Bank of Ethiopia, and it aims to recover the money that was illegally transferred or withdrawn within six hours starting last Saturday midnight (local time).

The source indicated that the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia does not yet know the amount of money it lost, but it indicated that over six billion birr worth of transactions were conducted in a matter of six hours, and over 25,000 money transfers were made.

Also, Wazema cited Fortune, a local newspaper, as saying that 66,000 Commercial Bank of Ethiopia clients were affected by the situation. From the report, the bank does not seem to be interested in confirming the amount of money that it said to have lost during the six hours of unexplained failure to the bank’s digital banking system.

Borkena has learned from citizens’ reports on social media that most money transfer transactions and ATM withdrawals were observed among university students. Jimma University and Addis Ababa University have issued warning statements urging students to return if they have withdrawn or transferred money from the bank and avoid facing legal consequences.

There were remarks that the incident was related to a cyber attack on the commercial bank, but the bank denied that there was one. It related the incident to an “error in the system.”

Wazema cited its sources from within to report that bank authorities were shocked when last Thursday about one hundred million birr government digital payment was authorized by more than one person. It was after that the bank worked to fix the system on Friday, and the systemic failure incident happened on Saturday night.

Also, the source indicated that cybersecurity experts remarked that the incident could be related to an attack on the bank’s digital infrastructure from within, although the bank denied that the incident was related to a cyber attack. Last week, the bank fired more than 200 employees in connection with fraudulent educational credentials.

The Ethiopian government had been suffering from internal sabotage which was made possible due to ethnic politics and radical ethnic nationalists within the government structure. A few years ago, a national leaving examination for high school was stolen – was recurring in the Oromia region – to the point that the exam result was disqualified.