The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Harshana Suriyapperuma, says that efforts are being made to recover as much as possible of the USD 2.5 million that cyber criminals obtained from the Ministry of Finance.
He made this statement while participating in a media briefing held today (23) at the auditorium of the Ministry.
Harshana Suriyapperuma further said that these hackers had entered the relevant system through email.
He further said that the Australian High Commissioner and the creditor had been informed regarding this incident.
“In January 2026, we came to know that cyber criminals were trying to enter the External Resources Department’s system. When such information was reported, we coordinated with the relevant foreign countries and ensured that no harm was caused to the country that was to receive the payment. That issue was resolved. We felt the need to prepare the necessary procedures to review past payments, because even before January, similar incidents had occurred. Accordingly, it took some time. During that period, it was revealed that the hackers’ activities had also affected a past payment in January,” he said.
Harshana Suriyapperuma noted that it was confirmed that the cyber criminals had accessed emails and defrauded nearly USD 2.5 million from the Ministry of Finance.
“Even though Sri Lanka had made the due payments, the cyber criminals had intervened and diverted it to other bank accounts, instead of the intended recipient,” he said.
He added that following these complaints were filed with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on the incident.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Finance further said that a committee has been appointed, comprising high-ranking officials of the Finance Ministry and two Deputy Secretaries of the Treasury, to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
He added that actions, including disciplinary action against officers, have been taken based on the reports of the committee obtained thus far. (Newswire)