The Sri Lankan government has confirmed that a cyber attack on its finance ministry has led to several million dollars being stolen by hackers, funds that had been allocated for debt repayments to Australia.
The government said that over $3.7 million was stolen when its email servers and computer systems were breached, making it the largest amount of money stolen by cyber criminals from a Sri Lankan state institution.
“The Australian High Commission and Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance are aware of irregularities in payments owed to the Australian government,” said Australian high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Matthew Duckworth.
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“Sri Lankan authorities are investigating the matter and are coordinating with Australian officials who are assisting the investigation.
“Australia remains committed to supporting Sri Lanka’s return to debt sustainability.”
Sri Lankan government officials have not given any details about the nature of the incident or named who was responsible.
However, Sri Lankan Finance Ministry Secretary Harshana Suriyapperuma said that authorities were made aware of a ministry email server break, which found that money earmarked for payment to Australia had vanished.
According to reports, the hackers diverted the funds after altering payment details, sending the funds to them when they were intended for Australia.
Suriyapperuma said the Criminal Investigation Department and the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka had been informed. Additionally, a formal investigation with an appointed committee, including two deputy Treasury secretaries, was launched to analyse the incident.
“Criminal investigators are looking into this, and we are not in a position to give further details,” he said.
Sri Lanka has been trying to stabilise since the economic crisis it suffered in 2022, when Colombo defaulted on its $46 billion external debt.
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Daniel Croft
Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Daniel Croft is a passionate journalist with an understanding for and experience writing in the technology space. Having studied at Macquarie University, he joined Momentum Media in 2022, writing across a number of publications including Australian Aviation, Cyber Security Connect and Defence Connect. Outside of writing, Daniel has a keen interest in music, and spends his time playing in bands around Sydney.
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