The Ugandan central bank was hacked and $17 million was stolen

The state-owned New Vision newspaper reported Thursday that hackers from outside of Uganda stole 62 billion shillings, which is about $16.8 million, from Uganda’s central bank.

The hackers, who called themselves “Waste,” apparently got into the Bank of Uganda’s computer systems earlier this month and moved the money without permission.

Based on unknown bank sources, New Vision said that the Southeast Asian hacking group sent some of the stolen money to Japan.

When Reuters asked the Bank of Uganda to speak on the situation, they did not do so right away. The Ugandan cops also didn’t answer when asked for their thoughts.

New Vision said that the central bank had been able to get back more than half of the money that the hackers took. The cyberattack led President Yoweri Museveni to call for a probe, the report said.

Also, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, Daily Monitor, said that officials may have worked together to commit the theft.

There have been many cyber thefts in Uganda from banks, other financial service providers, and even telecom companies.

Police, on the other hand, say that some banks don’t want to talk about these kinds of events because they don’t want to lose customers. $1 is equal to 3,685,000 Ugandan shillings.