The MTN Uganda chief executive Wim Vanhelleputte has admitted that the mobile money system run by an aggregator, Pegasus Technologies Limited was hacked into although no money was robbed as earlier reported by the media.
Mr Wim in a statement released Thursday explained that whereas there was no robbery, the mobile money services were temporarily suspended as a precautionary measure.
Statement
MTN Uganda provides select mobile money services aggregated or integrated through third parties.
On 3 October 2020, an aggregator, Pegasus Technologies Ltd experienced a security breach that impacted Bank 2 Wallet transfers.
Although the incident did not affect any customer money mobile balances, a limited number of other services aggregated through the third-party provider were
suspended as a precautionary safety measure.
The core MTN Mobile Money services namely cash deposits, withdrawals, Person to Person (P2P) transactions and MoMo payments were never affected nor
compromised at any stage.
Investigations led by the Uganda Police Force are ongoing to identify the root cause of the incident. We are confident the Uganda Police Force will conclude their investigations timeously and take appropriate action against the culprits.
The MTN mobile money platform complies with the highest international ICT security standards and is subjected to regular assessments and reviews by internal and external assurance providers.
We apologize to all our customers for any inconveniences and reassure the public that MTN Mobile money services are safe, convenient, and transparent.
Wim Vanhelleputte
Chief Executive
Officer MTN Uganda
