South African insurance group Liberty has been hit by hackers, it said on Saturday evening.
In a message sent via SMS to customers, Liberty said: “Liberty regrets to inform you that is has been subjected to unauthorised access to its IT infrastructure by an external party who requested compensation for it”.
“Since becoming aware, we have taken immediate steps to secure our computer systems and are investigating the incident,” it said.
It continued: “We are giving this matter the highest priority and will keep you informed as appropriate.”
The Sunday Times, quoting sources with “intimate knowledge” of the situation, said the unknown hackers demanded payment of millions of rand, failing which they would start releasing some of the information in their possession to the public.
“Liberty IT personnel are running around like headless chickens trying to figure out how much data was accessed, and they can’t explain to their bosses how they were hacked,” the newspaper quoted one source as saying.
No further details were immediately available. Liberty is expected to provide more information on Sunday. — (c) 2018 NewsCentral Media