CHAMWE KAIRA
Governor of the Bank of Namibia Johannes ǃGawaxab has said cybercrimes affecting commercial banks are a matter of when and not if they will happen.
Responding to a question on how far the central bank has gone into the investigations on the recent hacking of Standard Bank Namibia, in which clients lost money, !Gawaxab said in terms of cybercrimes: “It’s not whether we will be attacked. It’s a question of when and how do we respond when we are attacked, and how long does it take to get out of the attack,” he said.
He pointed out that technological advances offer immense opportunities, but they also introduce some key risks.
“We have several controls in place, like reporting to the banks within 24 hours when they have an attack. There was an attack recently at one of our commercial banks. They are required to comply with certain cyber requirements. We are quite comfortable with what the banks are doing. It’s a big reputational risk for them. They need to make sure it does not happen. This is not going to be the last one,” he said.
ǃGawaxab said reports received by the central bank indicated that all clients who lost money after Standard Bank was hacked have refunded by the bank. “We are comfortable with the controls that we have in place,” he said.
It is reported that between N$15 million and N$20 million was stolen when Standard Bank was hacked, according to police sources.
In November, Standard Bank said it had put in place corrective measures after some of its account holders recorded unauthorised payments from an international company.
The bank said there were unauthorised debit card transactions on some of its clients’ accounts.
The bank said it had detected unauthorised debit card transactions on a limited number of clients from a specific vendor.
The bank said it has engaged with those whose accounts have been hacked.
“We have detected unauthorised debit card transactions on a limited number of clients from a specific vendor. We have engaged with those impacted and taken immediate corrective action. We would like to assure our stakeholders that our systems remain resilient, “the bank said.
