On Wednesday night, Naija News discovered that the official website of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), gtbank.com, was unexpectedly inaccessible, raising concerns among customers and industry watchers. The sudden outage came just a day after the bank had renewed its domain for an additional five years, ensuring its validity from August 13, 2024, through March 21, 2029. This timing fueled speculation about a potential cyberattack.
Despite these concerns, no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the supposed breach. However, according to reports by Peoples Gazette, there are fears that the alleged attackers might have created a fraudulent version of the GTBank website to phish for customers’ sensitive information. The prospect of such a sophisticated attack has sparked further anxiety, especially considering GTBank’s reputation as one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions.
A cybersecurity expert familiar with Nigeria’s banking industry speculated that the breach might not have involved a direct hijacking of the bank’s domain but rather a compromise of login credentials, potentially opening the door to unauthorized access.
Interestingly, while the website remained down, GTBank’s mobile applications on both Android and iOS platforms continued to function without interruption, offering some reassurance to its users.
Amidst the growing speculation, a senior GTBank executive, speaking to Daily Post on condition of anonymity, dismissed the hacking rumors. The executive clarified that the issue was purely a connectivity problem, unrelated to any malicious cyber activity. “It’s false. What we are experiencing is a connectivity issue and has nothing to do with the alleged hacking,” the source confirmed.
This incident highlights the vulnerability of even the most established institutions to sudden disruptions, but it also underscores the importance of swift communication and transparency in quelling fears and maintaining customer trust.
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