Two of Eskom's IT staff and an accomplice are set to appear in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crime Court again on Monday, after allegedly attempting to use malware to rip-off the parastatal to the tune of R3.5 billion.
This follows a weekend sting operation that saw all three suspects arrested by the Hawks' Electronic Crime Unit of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation following an internal probe by Eskom, which brought the police into the issue last Friday.
The suspects have been charged with fraud, corruption and the contravention of the Electronic Communication and Transactions Act of 2002. The Eskom employees were arrested at its training facility in Midrand, and the accomplice was arrested in Meredale, south of Johannesburg.
Malicious software
According to the arrest report, the suspects - who have already appeared in court - attempted to rip-off Eskom by using key-logging malware to perpetrate 47 unsuccessful fraudulent attacks. The attacks were uncovered by Eskom's forensic investigator, Ajith Hansrajh, who - along with IT specialist Sampie Pretorius - investigated the content of several Eskom PCs during October.
Among the PCs probed was one used by IT analyst Solomon Peega, who used his device to access the network, including "several critical and sensitive databases", such as payroll, the report states.
Eskom's probe uncovered that Peega had allegedly used his PC, and unique user account, to illicitly upload key-logger Ardamax to intercept and download data and provide information allowing access to data and applications.
Outside infiltration
Peega, according to the arrest report, claimed his colleague Kgomotso Makgale approached him to assist a "syndicate" to access the utility's network. The report notes there are two other syndicate members, who provided Peega with devices to connect to Eskom's PCs, allowing remote access.
One of these syndicate members, going under the nom de plume of Doctor, is under arrest in conjunction with a similar attempted fraud at Makro and has yet to be charged. The other suspect, Neo Moumakoe, was arrested along with the two Eskom employees.
During the raid, the Hawks seized memory sticks, laptops, a cloned Eskom laptop, modems, cellphones, and documents containing copies of IDs of different people. Peega has been granted R2 000 bail, while the other two suspects are under remand.
This foiled heist follows the 12 November arrest of a former Gautrain Management Agency employee for a similar crime in which he tried to defraud the agency of R800 million. That suspect will appear for a formal bail application on Tuesday.
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