Sri Lanka’s Colombo Finance Ministry is seeking to recover $2.5 million lost to a cyber hack on the ministry’s payment system, a senior official on Thursday confirmed.
Finance Minister Harshana Suriyapperuma’s statement came a day after the opposition claimed that $2.5 million in treasury funds had gone into hacker accounts instead of the correct creditor accounts.
Suriyapperuma told reporters here that the hack at the Treasury was carried out via email and that the Treasury was aware of the hacking attempt at the beginning of this year.
He said: “In January 2026, we learned that cybercriminals were trying to gain access to the Department of External Resources’ systems. When such information was reported, we coordinated with the relevant foreign countries to ensure that no harm was caused to the recipient country. This issue has been resolved.”
A high-level committee has been appointed to investigate the hack and the resulting loss of $2.5 million.
In September 2025, Sri Lanka should pay US$22.9 million to creditors. Of that amount, $2.5 million will be paid between December 2025 and January 31, 2026.
A group of opposition lawyers wrote to the Speaker saying some of the payments had gone into hacker accounts rather than the correct creditor accounts.
The group called on the Speaker to launch an inquiry because public finances are the responsibility of Parliament. The issue was raised at a meeting of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
Relatedly, the Australian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement that both the High Commission and the Treasury were aware of irregularities in payments owed to the Australian government.
“Sri Lankan authorities are investigating the matter and are coordinating with Australian officials assisting the investigation,” the statement added.
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
