Egyptian fintech giant Fawry has denied rumours that its systems were breached.

On Friday, the company released a statement noting that a comprehensive review of its systems has shown no security breaches.

What rumours? Last Thursday, cybersecurity monitors HackManac and FalconFeeds reported that ransomware group Lockbit had added Fawry to its list of targets. Screenshots provided by both cybersecurity firms also showed that the cybercrime group had given Fawry a November 28 deadline to pay a ransom or risk having its data released to the dark web. 

Lockbit, a cybercrime group active since 2019, is considered the world’s most active ransomware group. From June 2022 to July 2023 alone, the group accounted for 28% of the total ransomware attacks—about 1,046 victims—including Pendragon LLC. More recently, the group attacked international space contractor Boeing. It’s estimated that Lockbit has extorted over $100 million from victims in the US alone. 

Fawry crashes: After the threats were made public, the myFawry app, later on Thursday, crashed. The company, in its statement, claims that the crash was due to a bank run as customers rushed to withdraw funds and close their accounts. 

Officials from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) also confirmed that the fintech had suffered no data breaches. 

Per Fawry’s founder and CEO Ashraf Sabry, “Our systems could have been attacked and we are investigating the matter … but what is certain after reviewing the systems is that no data were hacked or withdrawn.”

Zoom out: Following the scare, Fawry’s shares dipped by 4.6% on Thursday. The fintech, yesterday, reinstated its payments app and smart wallets and promised to verify the threats published.

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If any of our Nigerian readers woke up on Saturday morning to find that their BNPL airtime debts on MTN had been cleared, we have news for you: all na scam.

What’s up? After several MTN users received confirmation messages that their debts on the network had been cleared, the telecoms announced that the disappearing debts were due to a system glitch. 

In an official statement, the telecom said that the glitch affected balance enquiries for some subscribers. “As a result, some customers may receive error messages showing that their balances have been cleared. This is not the case and all balances will reflect accurate figures once the problem is resolved. Our engineers are currently working to ensure this. Please accept our apologies. We regret the inconvenience.” 

No debts have been forgiven and all customers will have to repay.

God forgives, but companies don’t: Already, Nigerians had taken to social media to commend the telecoms for its ingenuity, with tweets like this one stating that loan apps and other telecoms should follow suit and forgive all debts. Read Original