NetOne hacks tracked to brand officer and billing ...

NetOne hacks tracked to brand officer and billing engineer

Michael Mashiri

A NetOne Cellular Private Limited brand officer and billing engineer have been taken to court accused of unlawful disclosure of data code.

Linda Mutemeri, 30, and Anoti Munyaradzi, 30, both of Eastlea, appeared before magistrate Dennis Mangosi at the Harare Magistrates' Courts accused of unlawful disclosure of data code.

The complainant in this matter is Netone Cellular Private Limited, represented by Takaitei Chitekwe.

It is alleged that from February 2023 to July 2023, Mutemeri and Munyaradzi, working with Blessing Tizirai Mudarikwa a known hacker who is still at large, sought a plan to hack the NetOne system and misappropriate funds.

The three communicated through WhatsApp and had conference calls to discuss how to gain unauthorised access to NetOne system and misappropriate funds.

The court was informed that Mutemeri and Munyaradzi shared confidential, sensitive, and critical internal configurations of NetOne Cellular Private Limited with Mudarikwa, and connected foreign computer machines in the Netone system enabling him to access and enter into the system but failed to enter the pool account due to strong control mechanisms in the account system.

As a consequence of this unauthorised access, the financial resources of NetOne were potentially compromised, and there was a likelihood of a huge potential prejudice.

The two accused persons were remanded in custody.