About 41,000 Nedbank clients had cellphone numbers leaked in cyberattack

The cellphone numbers of at least 41,000 Nedbank clients were recently leaked in a cyberattack.

Nedbank's head of corporate communications, Annaleigh Vallie, confirmed to SowetanLIVE's sister publication TimesLIVE on Friday that 41,000 clients were affected by the breach. 

In an email to an affected client, which TimesLIVE has seen, the bank confirmed a cyberattack between March 15 and 18, in which hackers attempted to create/enrol fraudulent profiles (Nedbank IDs) on the Nedbank Money app using valid South African identity numbers.

“ Once we became aware of the incident, we immediately disabled the enrolment functionality on the Nedbank Money app channel as a preventative measure. We also implemented additional controls and the enrolment functionality has since been restored.” 

Nedbank said none of its systems or clients' accounts was compromised. 

“The attackers managed to retrieve cellphone numbers linked to the SA ID numbers. The reason you are receiving this communication is to notify you that your cellphone number was compromised in this process. We reiterate that knowledge of your SA ID and phone number on its own is not sufficient information to access your banking profile. You therefore do not need to take any further action other than continuing to be vigilant,” the email to one of the bank's clients read. 

TimesLIVE