Kenyans arrested in Rwanda bank hackers ring bust

Rwandan detectives are holding 12 suspected hackers amongst them eight Kenyans, over cyber fraud attempt on Equity Bank-Rwanda.

The other suspects are three Rwandans and a Ugandan national.

The names of Kenyan suspects are yet to be released by the time we went to press.

Sources at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Nairobi on Friday told the Nation that the identities would be communicated through Interpol.

According to the Rwanda Investigations Bureau (RIB) the 12 were arrested while in the process of hacking into the bank system to steal money from clients’ accounts.

“The group came to Rwanda after successfully defrauding Equity Bank both in Kenya and Uganda,” RIB said on Twitter.

A case file has been submitted to the National Public Prosecution Authority for further processing.

“RIB commends all those who shared information that led to the arrest of suspects and urge the public to remain vigilant and always share information that can be used to prevent crime,” added RIB.

TECHNOLOGY

With its high internet speeds, a good financial system integrated to a widely successful mobile money platform, Kenya is increasingly turning into a cybercriminal’s paradise.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has frequently warned that banks should continuously increase resilience to cybersecurity.

“Attackers are getting increasingly sophisticated. Now, it’s generally accepted that we need to be ready to detect an incident and respond in a timely manner and address the challenge,” said CBK in its State of CybersecurityReport (2018).

In January this year, the DCI published names and images of 130 suspects wanted in connection with electronic fraud for allegedly hacking bank systems.