Recently one of South Africa's main credit bureaus, TransUnion has been hacked, and the hackers are demanding $15 million in ransom.
The compromised credit bureau revealed on Friday it had been hacked and had received a ransom demand which "will not be paid." By exploiting an authorised client's credentials, the hackers, dubbed N4aughtysecTU, acquired access to an "isolated server holding restricted data from our South African firm."
N4aughtysecTU told IT Web it had 4 terabytes of client data and had accessed 54 million records, including information from more than 200 businesses. It allegedly threatened to attack TransUnion's corporate clients unless the credit bureau paid it $15 million in Bitcoin (about R223 million).
The breach affects many South Africans who have entered into credit agreements, regardless of loan size. Users automatically consent to the credit bureaus disclosing about credit and payment history when they sign into agreements with banks or other financial institutions, credit card providers, vehicle lenders, utilities, or other creditors. The fact that your account information and payment history will be submitted to credit reporting agencies is outlined in these agreements.
According to a statement on the TransUnion website:
- An isolated server containing limited information from our South African operations was impacted by the attack.
- The team is working closely with other specialists to figure out what data was impacted.
- Consumer information, such as phone numbers, email addresses, and identity information, may be affected.
People should not give out personal information such as passwords and PINs to strangers over the phone or over email, according to Sabric, and demands for personal information should be confirmed first.
Experian, a credit bureau, had a data breach in 2020, potentially exposing the personal information of 24 million South Africans. Alongside, a ransomware attack hit Debt-IN Consultants, a debt recovery partner to various South African financial sector companies, in 2021. It is estimated that over 1.4 million South Africans' personal information was fraudulently accessed from its systems.
Moreover, banks have also been targeted. Absa revealed a data breach in November 2020, and over a year and a half later, it is still identifying more compromised customers.
