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Liberty CEO labels hack criminal act

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 17 Jun 2018
An external party gained access to Liberty's IT infrastructure and demanded payment.
An external party gained access to Liberty's IT infrastructure and demanded payment.

Liberty Holdings is in the middle of a criminal investigation after hackers gained unauthorised access to its IT systems, says CEO David Munro.

Munro briefed media on Sunday evening about its data breach and the steps the company is taking to secure clients' data.

On Saturday, the financial services company informed customers via text, emails and a message on its Web site alerting them about a security breach to its systems. According to company, an external party gained unauthorised access to its IT infrastructure and demanded payment.

The message reads: "Dear valued customer, Liberty regrets to inform you that it has been subjected to unauthorised access to its IT infrastructure by an external party who requested compensation for it. Since becoming aware - we have taken immediate steps to secure computer systems and are investigating the incident. We are giving this matter the highest priority and will keep you informed as appropriate."

On Sunday, Munro said the company is at an advanced stage of investigating the extent of the data breach.

According to him, Liberty was alerted to the data breach very late on Thursday evening, and immediately convened a team of specialists, which included IT and security specialists to investigate the incident.

He continued to say the company immediately identified and addressed specific vulnerabilities their IT systems may have had to ensure the integrity of customers' data. "We can confirm that we are in full control of our IT environment. To our customers, we totally understand their concerns and we deeply regret the possible impact of this act of criminality."

So far, noted Munro, the data breach seems to be largely emails and possibly attachments. Any further updates will be given as soon as more facts emerge, he said. "To be clear at this stage there is no evidence that any of our customers have suffered any financial loss. We will pro-actively inform our customers if and when we discover that they may have been impacted."

The Liberty CEO also stated that all policies and contracts remain in force.

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