NCSL undergoing IT review

By NATHAN WOTI
THE Nasfund Contributors Savings and Loans Society (NCSL) is undergoing a systematic process to check and review its IT systems after discovering a malware threat on March 1, which raised concerns for customers’ data and savings.
NCSL chief executive officer Vari Lahui said the society had to voluntarily shut down its IT systems last week to ensure the threat did not affect customers’ data.
“We are working on identifying where the threat came from,” he said.
“We spotted a threat in our system on March 1, when we were running our normal daily checks of our systems.
“When we saw the alert signal we called a meeting were the board agreed for a voluntary shutdown for all our systems across the nation.
“We are yet to determine where it came from, however, our customers must rest assured that their data and savings are secured.”
Lahui said in the interim while waiting for the investigation process to be completed, NCSL would resort to use the manual handling of customers’ queries.
“Customers who wish to get updates for their account status can contact us on our landline number or go to any NCSL office and they can get sorted out.”
Lahui said the society would resume full services once the board was satisfied that every aspect of their operations across branches was safe and secure.
The exercise to restore the system will take about seven days.
Meanwhile, NCSL chief operating officer Presley Semi said threats posed by malware, viruses and hackers was a continuous challenge that all companies had to deal with and vigilance was key to protecting their systems.
“These hacks happen almost every day, especially to financial institutions and agencies, so we must be at the top of our game to detect and prevent them from getting access to valuable customers’ information.”
Chairman Ian Tarutia encouraged NCSL customers to not panic and allow the society to work on the issue.
“The most important thing is our customers’ confidence in us as we look after their money,” he said.
“We do not want them to lose trust in us.”
Tarutia assured customers that NCSL had backup systems off shore to store customer data for these kinds of situations.
He said NCSL’s account status and data were safe but for future prevention the process was important for the society to complete.