Money worries

THERE were jitters in Jamaica’s financial sector on Friday as the operators of the MultiLink debit card and Automated Clearing House (ACH) networks confirmed that sections of its system had been the subject of a cyberattack. In an early morning release Jamaica Electronic Transfer Services (JETS) said the cyberattack, which had been circulating as a rumour since Thursday, involved a limited part of its internal administrative systems, but the MultiLink and ACH networks were not affected and both remained fully operational. “The JETS Cyber Monitoring Team detected suspicious activity within a limited portion of the company’s domain and immediately shut down the administrative system, isolated and launched a full forensic investigation in coordination with specialist cybersecurity consultants.

“While payment networks were not affected, there were reports with payment transactions accessed by the hackers that contain information that may have exposed the names of some customers who received transfers via ACH, as well as some card numbers from historical administrative data files on the debit network,” said JETS. “It is important to note, however, that personal identification numbers (PINs), card verification values (CVV), and expiry dates are never stored and would not have been impacted,” added JETS as it sought to allay fears of people in the financial sector and members of the public. According to JETS, both it and its member institutions have employed necessary and vital steps to protect the integrity of the payment systems and customer information. “Customers of member institutions are, however, encouraged to observe standard digital-safety practices and contact their individual financial institutions should they receive unsolicited communication about their card or…