Hackers breached the Ugandan central bank’s systems and stole 62 billion shillings ($17 million) from its accounts, New Vision reported.
The attack on the Bank of Uganda was carried out by a group known as “Waste” based in Southeast Asia, the Kampala-based newspaper said on Thursday, citing people it didn’t identify. The bank recovered about 37 billion shillings of the amount taken, it said.
The police and the auditor general’s office are investigating the incident, it said. The bank didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Bloomberg.
The Daily Monitor newspaper reported separately that the total amount stolen was 47.8 billion shillings and the money was spirited away in September into two accounts in Japan and the UK.
The fraud was an “inside job” and several employees at the central bank and the finance ministry have been questioned, the paper said.