Flutterwave: Are Hackers Winning The War?

With the current ways by which hackers go on a hacking spree, leaving trails of tales of woes amongst corporate and individual victims that part with valuables, one is bound to ask the question, "Are these hackers truly winning this cybersecurity war and calling the shots?

Imagine the top six global corporate giants that have recently fallen victim to hacker activities and you will be amazed.

They are:

• China National Petroleum
• Royal Dutch Shell
• Sony Pictures
• Saudi Aramco
• Volkswagen
• BP

The above list will quickly alert you to the fact that hackers are on the rampage and who knows who is next? 

This picture puts it mildly for the latest victim of hacking in Nigeria: Flutterwave.

The latest reports available to AllNews Nigeria have it that about ₦2,949,557,867 has been illegally transferred from the accounts of African fintech unicorn, Flutterwave. 

The tech giant’s counsel, Albert Onimole, reported the case to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, Techcabal reported. 

According to Onimole’s letter, the hack on Flutterwave’s accounts occurred about some weeks ago revealing that the said sum was initially transferred to 28 accounts in 63 transactions.

Although the accounts that received the money were listed, the police are yet to freeze the receiving accounts to prevent the money from being moved. 

According to Flutterwave, some commercial banks allowed the money to be moved to other accounts, widening the money trail. 

To investigate the accounts holding the stolen funds across various financial institutions in Nigeria, S.A. Adedesin, Legal Officer, State CID, Panti, Yaba, filed a suit in the Magistrate Court of Lagos to support Flutterwave’s claims.

With the stolen funds distributed across several accounts, which, according to tweets, may or may not have anything to do with the hack, it is not clear at this time who hacked Flutterwave. 

Questions about how hackers got past Flutterwave’s security and what this means for the unicorn’s customers remain unanswered.

As of press time, Flutterwave hasn’t responded to our questions.

Conclusion

Simply put, the case of hacking lies in the ability of hackers to uncover certain 'languages or keys' or binary digit combinations with which to unlock digital security locks such as to be capable of issuing otherwise unauthorized commands to local computing units. 

Ordinarily, one would have looked at the way of blockchain technology in providing watertight cybersecurity protections.

However, recent compromises in cryptocurrency transactions have also thrown up doubts. 

A pertinent question, therefore, to ask is, "Can members of the system IT administration and security service be truly trusted amongst themselves?"

To the 'uninitiated' in the operations of cybersecurity, cumbersome combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and alphanumeric characters that nobody outside the cybersecurity circles is privy to should be enough to solve this hacking riddle.

Or, put in another way, are there some metaphysical aids enjoyed by these hackers in cracking otherwise watertight cryptographic keys and passwords?

This hacking trend just has to be checked!