Key Points Regarding the Glitch:
- Over $40 million withdrawn by students due to glitch
- Took several hours for police to intervene
- It was not a cyber attack and customer’s accounts are unaffected
On Saturday, 16th March, a glitch occurred in the transaction systems of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, which allowed people to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts. It took several hours for the glitch to be fixed, and over $40 million was reportedly withdrawn during this time.
The main demographic of people who abused this glitch were college students. Even at midnight and 2 am local time, large queues of students at university ATMs were observed. A lot of the damage was already done before police could intervene. The police, along with several universities urged students to give back the money withdrawn to the CBE, however the BBC reports that a student from Jimma University said he saw no students returning the money, and we can assume this was the case for many other universities.
Bank president Abe Sano told journalists that the incurred loss was minimal compared to their total assets, with 40 million current customers. Abe Sano also emphasized that this was not a cyber attack and was simply a glitch, as customers’ accounts were unaffected.
The president seemed to focus on the brief loss of services during the glitch when all transactions were frozen, rather than the loss of money withdrawn.
The Ethiopian police have stated that anyone who returns the money won’t be criminally prosecuted.
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Cover Image- Kenya Wall Street
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https://www.thepoliticsoutlook.com/hrishi/corruption-in-bjp-electoral-bonds-causes-huge-scandal/291/
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