Star
There was confusion yesterday after claims that someone had hacked Safaricom system.
Unconfirmed reports said the hacker accessed the system and allowed subscribers to get free data bundles and airtime. It is said the company suffered a loss of data bundles worth 500 million and airtime worth Sh1 million.
While the police said they had arrested the perpetrator, Safaricom dismissed the claims as rumours. Safaricom allegedly reached out to those who had “illegally” acquired the data and airtime to visit their nearest outlets to rectify the mistake.
Kiambu county commissioner Wilson Wanyanga said officers had arrested the suspect in Juja and will present him in court today. He told journalists the suspect had been found in possession of some 1,000 Simcards belonging to the company.
Wanyanga said the suspect, believed to be a university student, hacked the system and allowed subscribers to get free access to data bundles and airtime. Safaricom, however, maintained they were not aware of such claims. A communications manager who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were aware the police had made several arrests but only related to Simwap and M-Pesa fraud.
“We are not aware of such hacking. We are not even aware of any arrests that have been made. All we know is that the police have been on alert over sim swap and M-Pesa fraudsters. If there are any arrests they might be related to that and not hacking,” he said.
