One of Nigeria’s foremost commercial bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), has debunked the reports of its website being hijacked by hackers, claiming it as entirely false.
As at Thursday morning, checks at the GTBank website, gtbank.com, revealed that it was no longer accessible.
Trouble had begun for the bank a day after the domain was renewed for another five years, extending its validity from August 13, 2024, through March 21, 2029, according to the online platforms that track domain information.
As at press time, no hacker organisation or person has claimed responsibility for the alleged hack on the website.
However a report by Peoples Gazette had alluded that the alleged attackers may have set up a fraudulent version of the website in an attempt to phish customers’ sensitive information.
Experts familiar with Nigeria’s banking sector however, had indicated that the compromise could have involved the bank’s login credentials, rather than the domain being seized for resale.
The bank’s mobile applications on Android and iOS have remained functional at the time of this report, despite the website’s disruption.
What They’re Saying
A top GTB executive (name withheld) who spoke with Daily Post newspapers had explained that the bank had a connectivity issue, but it had nothing to do with hacking.
The source had said,
“It’s false. What we are experiencing is a connectivity issue and has nothing to do with the alleged hacking.”