South Africa has been struck by a massive cyber-fraud attack that experts are calling one of the biggest in the nation’s history.
A computer virus nicknamed “Dexter”, after the serial killer character in a U.S. TV show, compromised the payment card systems of thousands of businesses, restaurants and hotels.
Losses are thought to be in the tens of millions.
The Dexter code was used to make a series of attacks in the U.S., UK and other countries toward the end of 2012. It skims the information from magnetic cards in a way that allows a criminal to make a duplicate card.
Interpol and Europol believe the hackers behind the attack are based in Europe and have said their investigation is making “good progress.”
“Normal anti-virus software would probably have cleaned up Dexter but it was a particular custom-built variant, which was not detectable with the normal scanning software that everybody’s got,” Walter Volker, chief executive of the Payment Association of South Africa, told the BBC.
The leaders of the BRICS nations are discussing the creation of a development bank that would be in direct competition to the World Bank.
South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a public meeting yesterday that more the one in every four schoolgirls, 28% of the age group, is HIV positive.
The Centers for Disease Control have confirmed the first cases of a completely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis in South Africa. The CDC report is calling the infection “virtually untreatable.”
