Absa has been affected by a data breach, which the banking group said Monday night was limited in nature, but involved the “illegal” leak of customer information by an employee.

Absa said Monday night in an emailed statement to TechCentral that the employee had “illegally made customer data available to a small number of external parties.”

“Absa notes that an employee has illegally made certain customer data available to a small number of external parties. The leaked data refers to a small part of Absa South Africa’s customer base, although investigations continue, ”he said. The bank did not immediately say what kind of information was released.

“Upon discovering the breach, Absa obtained high court orders that allowed search and seizure operations at various facilities and protected all devices containing the data. The data on these devices was later destroyed, ”the bank added.

He did not say when the leak occurred.

Improved monitoring

“Absa has improved the tracking of customer accounts that have been affected to date and is contacting customers directly,” he said.

“Absa has filed criminal charges against the employee and the necessary consequence management has been carried out internally.

“Absa can take further action regarding recipients of the data once the full extent of the leak is identified and all investigations are completed.” – (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media

  • This article has been updated to make it clear that this was a data breach and not a data breach.