Safaricom-Backed M-Tiba Faces Major Data Breach Claim
A potential large-scale data breach is impacting M-Tiba, a digital health wallet supported by Safaricom in Kenya. Hackers allege they’ve compromised millions of sensitive medical and personal records, representing what could be one of the country’s most significant data security incidents.
The Alleged M-Tiba Data Breach
A hacking group known as Kazu is claiming responsibility for the breach, stating they’ve accessed over 17 million files, totaling approximately 2.15 terabytes, from M-Tiba’s servers. To substantiate their claim, Kazu shared a 2GB sample of the stolen data on their Telegram channel, “Kazu Breach.” This sample appears to contain a wealth of personal information, including patients’ names, national identification numbers, birthdates, phone numbers, and in certain instances, medical diagnoses and billing details. According to investigations, the leaked files contain information pertaining to roughly 114,000 M-Tiba users, encompassing both account holders and their listed beneficiaries. Kazu estimates that as many as 4.8 million individuals could be affected by the breach, although this figure remains unverified. CarePay, the Nairobi-based health technology company that operates M-Tiba, has neither confirmed nor denied the data breach.
The potential compromise of such sensitive data raises serious concerns about privacy and security within Kenya’s growing digital health sector, underscoring the need for robust data protection measures and swift action in the face of cyber threats.
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