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Fintech Flutterwave brushes off $6m hack claim in Nigeria

By , Africa editor
Africa , Nigeria , 07 Mar 2023

Nigeria-founded fintech Flutterwave has denied losing $6.3 million in its home country through a hack, but says it identified an ‘unusual trend of transactions’ in some users’ accounts.

This follows reports that last month hackers allegedly breached Flutterwave accounts in Nigeria, costing the company millions of dollars.

Techpoint Africa reported on Sunday that police are investigating the matter, as Flutterwave is seeking to freeze accounts in 27 financial institutions where some of the money was transferred.

Responding to ITWeb Africa’s request for comment, Flutterwave denies being hacked in a statement.

“We want to reassure you that Flutterwave has not been hacked. As a financial institution, we monitor transactions through our transaction monitoring systems and 24-hour fraud desk and review any suspicious activity. We collaborate with other financial institutions and law enforcement agencies to keep our ecosystem safe and secure.

“During a routine check of our transaction monitoring system, we identified an unusual trend of transactions on some users’ profiles. Our team immediately launched a review (in line with our standard operating procedure), which revealed that some users who had not activated some of our recommended security settings might have been susceptible.”

Flutterwave, which is now global fintech, provides commercial financing and mobile payment services and it also offers payment technology and infrastructure that enables banks and global merchants to accept and process payments on web, mobiles, ATM, and POS.

Flutterwave has also partnered with global and pan-African technology and telecommunications companies such as PayPal, MTN, and Airtel Africa to drive financial inclusion on the continent.

In the statement yesterday, the company said ‘no user lost any funds’, assuring the public its security measures ‘were able to address the issue before any harm could be done to our users’.

It adds: “Our commitment to keeping our users’ financial information safe and secure is why we invest heavily in security initiatives such as periodic audits, certifications, and licenses such as the PCI-DSS & ISO 27001. These are in line with global best practices in information security management.

“We understand that our customers’ personal and financial information is of the utmost importance. We take this responsibility seriously and understand that any potential security breach can cause anxiety and concern among our customers."

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