"Ekurhuleni hackers cleared municipal debt owed by residents, businesses"

[Anthro]

Ekurhuleni hackers cleared municipal debt owed by residents, businesses

The hackers who effectively seized control of Ekurhuleni’s IT billing system manipulated billing data to reduce property rates debt owed to the city by residents and businesses

www.timeslive.co.za

 

[Crowley]

 

[Herr der Verboten]

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I think you misunderstood how robin hood actually worked.

 

[B-1]

It would be obvious if you fix just your account so you have to clear a bunch of them.

 

[Lupus]

I think you misunderstood how robin hood actually worked.

You mean he wasn't an anthromorphic fox??

 

[Jings]

The hack occured almost a year ago and they're only picking up the anomaly now?

 

[Jings]

It often takes an audit to pick up this kind of anomaly.

They should be balancing monthly, not only when the auditors visit.

 

[upup]

Was it a hacker or somebody who work there and saw the gap

 

[Jings]

Who said they aren’t balancing? Bad debt write off is a double sided transaction.

Except it wasn't bad debt write-off. Transactions were deleted.
The month end trial balance would pick up that kind of anomaly.

 

[Jings]

Unless they were deleted from both sides of the books

On a trial balance the closing balance is carried forward to the new period. There's no way to balance if historical transactions are missing.

 

[Jings]

So when did the hack happen again?

According to the article OMA chartered accountants compiled their forensic report in July 2025 so that hack occurred prior to that period.

 

[Zellephant]

The hack occured almost a year ago and they're only picking up the anomaly now?

Makes sense. Hack occurred after the end of the 2024/2025 financial year - so could easily have slipped through the cracks until the 2025/2026 year end financials where being audited.

They should be balancing monthly, not only when the auditors visit.

Books most likely balanced on month end/year end, because if the hacker was worth their salt they would have fiddled with both sides of the ledger.

 

[Zellephant]

What a bunch of legends for doing this though. Couldn’t think of a more deserving lot to rip off. It’s not like Ethikwini has a stellar track record of spending ratepayers money wisely and responsibly

 

[Sinbad]

. It’s not like Ethikwini has a stellar track record of spending ratepayers money wisely and responsibly

You're not wrong but you're wrong.

Ethekwini!=ekurhuleni

 

[Zellephant]

You're not wrong but you're wrong.

Ethekwini!=ekurhuleni

Haha. My bad. Want focussing. How sad is it though that even though I’m wrong, I’m still not wrong - the statement stands no matter which metros name you insert - with maybe, just maybe an exception for CoCT.

 

[Jings]

Makes sense. Hack occurred after the end of the 2024/2025 financial year - so could easily have slipped through the cracks until the 2025/2026 year end financials where being audited.

Books most likely balanced on month end/year end, because if the hacker was worth their salt they would have fiddled with both sides of the ledger.

Even if both sides are deleted, there is the bank reconciliation, AR/AP ageing VS GL control accounts and month on month comparison.

 

[Zellephant]

Let's use the bank recon as an example. How is that affected by writing off non-payers debt?

My thoughts exactly. If the debt is written off in the ledgers, how would an accountant or bookkeeper in the normal course of their duties pick that up off the bank statements? You will maybe notice a payment made to an account, but would just credit it to that account as per normal. If the persons debt was written off, their rates account would then just go into credit.

 

[Jings]

Let's use the bank recon as an example. How is that affected by writing off non-payers debt?

Do you have other information other than what is stated in the article? There's no mention of write offs - only deletion of back end billing data.

If revenue is the expected amount but the balance carried forward is much less, it should definitely raise alarm bells.

 

[Jings]

But revenue is now less, a bunch of invoices have been reversed. Anything can be picked up if it was a small business, but scale is a bit bigger here. I’m pretty sure it’s not handled by a single bookeeper.

You don't think they missed the R2bn?

 

[Zurg]

The hack occured almost a year ago and they're only picking up the anomaly now?

The best hacks are the undiscovered ones.