News From Africa

WARNING TransUnion Data Breach

SABRIC has written to warn businesses that TransUnion’s extensive database has been breached and data were stolen. As the SABRIC warning says “SABRIC and TransUnion South Africa are coordinating the banking industry’s efforts to secure bank customers’ profiles against abuse, in the wake of a hacking group obtaining data belonging to the bureau.” This issue has been reported to the Information Regulator. A ruling is expected soon.

Readers will recall that this is the second major theft from credit bureaux in South Africa recently. Experian’s data was stolen by an unnamed “direct marketer” in 2020. In that case, too, it was the banks who took action to warn consumers. EFSA reports that since the TransUnion breach it has received numerous emails purporting to be from TransUnion. We recommend members to check such emails very carefully, as if these are from the cybercriminals they are more than likely to carry some form of malware, like viruses or ransomware. We also learn that the theft of Experian data may not have been one occurrence.