Hackers also attempted to obtain funds linked to payment to India: Deputy Minister

Colombo, April 23 (Daily Mirror) - Deputy Minister of Finance Dr. Anil Jayantha said that the hackers who had fraudulently obtained funds to be made to the Australian Export Finance Agency, had also attempted to obtain funds associated with a payment to be made to India as well.

The Minister said the fraud came to light after they attempted to obtain funds to be made to India.

He said a suspicion arose due to the constant change of the account numbers connected to the payments and that a complaint was made to the Sri Lanka Police Cyber Crimes Investigation Division and the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) to probe the matter.

The Minister said a lengthy investigation was carried out which traced the debt repayment since the debt restructuring process and that the alleged financial theft by the hackers associated with a payment to the Australian Export Finance Agency was revealed through the probe.

He said a complaint was then filed with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and that CID investigations are underway.

The Minister said an internal committee, including two Deputy Treasury Secretaries was also appointed and that based on its recommendations, disciplinary action has already been taken against certain officials.

Responding to various claims by opposition politicians for not revealing the incident, the Minister said they wanted swift action being taken rather than staging media shows.

He said the first priority was to capture the hackers and recover the monies, adding that leaking sensitive information would have indirectly assisted the hackers.

The Minister urged the people not to be misled by the baseless and false information shared by some politicians and that the government will reveal information as and when necessary, based on the investigations.