Cyber attack on BNA leaves Angolan financial system paralyzed.

After several cyber attack attempts recorded last year, the National Bank of Angola (BNA) suffered an attack on its system on the 8th of this month.

Julieta Paquete

In May, the bank recorded a frequency of daily attacks on its financial system, totaling more than 300 attempts. By the way, the attack has reached the bank's database and its essential services. Until yesterday, the BNA continued without effective control of its IT system and without access to shared folders, institutional emails and other services.

The offensive paralyzed, for more than 24 hours, the Real-Time Payments System (SPTR), which handles interbank operations across the country, including State financial operations in kwanzas, according to the Maka Angola portal.

This is a ransomware attack - extortion software, in which attackers encrypt essential information from the bank and demand a monetary ransom (in cryptocurrencies) to once again free the institution's access to its database. The regulator activated the company New Cognitos (formerly Tell IT) to respond to the attack, but considers its intervention ineffective.

Tell IT, from the Mitrelli Group, owned by Israeli Haim Taib, was responsible for installing the BNA's IT Network Protection System, including equipment and security tools for data protection, against attacks and improper access to the BNA's network. institution.

However, BNA technicians have been complaining for years about Haim Taib's company's unrestricted access to the central bank's security systems.

The Real-Time Payments System is interconnected with the BNA's Integrated Markets and Asset Management System (SIGMA) and is where all asset market transactions are carried out, namely the purchase and sale of treasury and bank bonds central.

In this sense, what should be expected from an institution like the country's central bank, in terms of transparency, is to inform the public about what happened. Unfortunately, the BNA did not publicly communicate the attack it suffered.

with Maka Angola