Remember the $1.2 million that a hacker transferred to an account at a Vietnamese Bank account in 2011? Well KHJ News has learned that a second such case occurred earlier this month.
Treasurer Ueligitone Tonumaipe’a is off island and several calls to deputy Treasurer Tina Vaa have not been answered.
Two officials in Treasury have confirmed that Treasury wire transferred $200,000 as a payment to an off island vendor which provides services for the Department of Human and Social Services. Except that the account to which the money was wired to belonged to a hacker, Not the vendor.
How did that happen? An employee of DHSS was apparently sent an email purporting to be from the vendor and asking for payment.
The sender provided a phony bank account number. The employee forwarded the email to the DHSS finance division and the email found its way to Treasury with a request to pay.
According to our sources, Treasury later wire transferred the payment of $200,000 to the account given in the email. The one belonging to a hacker, not the DHSS vendor.
It’s not known how the error was discovered but KHJ News understands that it took several days before those involved realized the transfer was a hack job.
The $1.2 million that was illegally transferred to an account in the Bank of Vietnam in 2011 took many years to recoup. The money was finally returned in 2015,
It was mentioned during Fono hearings that Treasury had taken steps to prevent a repeat of what happened back in 2011.
But the latest incident indicates that hackers are still able to infiltrate ASG’s finance system.
