MTN Group, one of the largest telecommunications services providers in Africa, says the personal information of some customers was compromised in a cyber incident.
Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, MTN operates in 18 markets across Africa, providing broadband and mobile network services to roughly 288 million customers.
“MTN Group would like to inform stakeholders that it has experienced a cybersecurity incident that resulted in unauthorized access to personal information of some MTN customers in certain markets,” the company said in an incident notice.
The telecom provider says the incident did not affect its core network, nor its billing and financial services infrastructure.
“An unknown third-party has claimed to have accessed data linked to parts of our systems,” the company said, adding that it had no evidence that customer accounts and wallets had been directly compromised.
Immediately after discovering the incident, MTN activated its cyber response plan and notified the relevant authorities in South Africa and other countries.
“We are in the process of notifying affected customers in compliance with local legal and regulatory obligations,” MTN said.
The company did not say how many individuals might have been affected by the incident, but encouraged all customers to remain vigilant and follow recommended security practices.
“The privacy of information is our top priority and MTN remains committed to safeguarding the integrity of our systems and the trust placed in us by our customers and other stakeholders. We will continue to contain and manage this matter carefully,” the company said.
Responding to a SecurityWeek inquiry, MTN refrained from sharing information on the number of potentially impacted individuals, citing its ongoing investigation into the attack, but confirmed that an extortion group was responsible for the intrusion.
“The investigation is still ongoing, but we can confirm that the threat actor has made a demand,” an MTN spokesperson said.
*Updated with statement from MTN.
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