Bank of Mozambique penalized five financial institutions last year
Rogerio Zandamela. Picture: O País
Bank of Mozambique’s governor, Rogério Zandamela, on Tuesday claimed Portuguese company Bizfirst had carried out “cyber-attacks” after ATM’s and card machines that use the software provided by Bizfirst were down for almost a week.
“When we became aware of Bizfirst’s cyberattacks, we realised it had to do with a power play and we started working on a contingency plan,” Zandamela said at Mozambique’s parliament.
“We are talking about a small international company, a company of no importance. This is the company that created this blackout,” he added.
He ruled out renewing a contract with the company. The new service provider has not yet been revealed.
The blackout of automatic teller and card operations of most Mozambican banks since Friday results from a failure to pay sums due and other breaches on the part of Simo, the company that runs the network, according to Bizfirst, a Portuguese firm that supplied technology for it.
“Simo/InterBancos unlawfully used Bizfirst’s software for more than two years, without ever paying,” the firm announced in a statement on Monday in which it says that it had made efforts to reach a deal, including a series of price cuts, “but Simo never accepted any agreement”.
Bizfirst complained that Simo, which is majority owned by Mozambique’s central bank, had not responded to its communications, even after warnings issued on 7 and 16 November about a stoppage to services if nothing were done.
Simo and Interbancos have, according to Bizfirst, made “unlawful and unauthorised use of the software, without signed contracts and without any payment made.” It was, it states, “the conduct of these entities” that resulted in the current situation.
Bizfirst issued its statement after Simo announced at a news conference on Monday that the company was imposing unsustainable conditions and that some even threatened the state’s sovereignty.
Gertrudes Tovela, chair of Simo’s board of directors and a director of the Bank of Mozambique, said that society was being subjected to “blackmail”: demanding that certain conditions are met, or else the service would be cut off.
In its statement, Bizfirst denies that, describing the accusation as serious and announcing that it has taken steps to have those concerned charged with the crimes of slander, defamation and insult to a legal person.
The blackout, it said, “is unique and regrettably must be blamed on the competent authorities” in Mozambique.
Bizfirst has provided and supported the platform for the operation of, first, the InterBancos network, since 14 years ago, and was contacted following the creation of the Simo, which took over from that company, leading to the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2016.
A payment made in August, to which Simo referred at Monday’s news conference, was made by InterBancos in relation to the annual contract for technical support services, not to software, it said.
Simo has said that it cannot predict when its network of automated teller and point-of-sale machines will be functioning again, along with card operations.
Only cards, boxes and payment terminals (POS) of the Millennium Bim bank are working as they are connected to another network.
Banks that work with Simo are losing five million meticais (€71,000) a day due to the blackout of the terminals.
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