{"id":305,"date":"2026-04-24T15:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/?p=305"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:39:09","slug":"major-cyberattack-on-sri-lankas-finance-ministry-2-5-million-stolen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/2026\/04\/24\/major-cyberattack-on-sri-lankas-finance-ministry-2-5-million-stolen\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Cyberattack on Sri Lanka\u2019s Finance Ministry; $2.5 Million Stolen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"84\">A major cyberattack has targeted Sri Lanka\u2019s Finance Ministry, with hackers reportedly stealing <strong data-start=\"182\" data-end=\"198\">$2.5 million<\/strong>, marking the largest cyber-related financial theft from a state institution in the country.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"292\" data-end=\"596\">The breach specifically affected the <strong data-start=\"329\" data-end=\"369\">Public Debt Management Office (PDMO)<\/strong>. Authorities initially detected suspicious activity involving the ministry\u2019s email system, which led to a deeper investigation. It was then discovered that the stolen funds were part of a scheduled debt repayment to Australia.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"598\" data-end=\"768\">Finance Ministry Secretary <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Harshana Suriyapperuma<\/span><\/span> confirmed the incident, stating that four senior PDMO officials have been suspended following the breach.<\/p>\n<h3 data-section-id=\"xu6ghb\" data-start=\"770\" data-end=\"820\">Ongoing Investigations &amp; International Support<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"821\" data-end=\"1001\">The <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Criminal Investigation Department<\/span><\/span> is currently leading investigations, while Sri Lankan authorities have also sought assistance from international law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1003\" data-end=\"1234\">Australia has extended support, with High Commissioner <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Matthew Duckworth<\/span><\/span> confirming that irregularities in the payment were identified and that Australian officials are cooperating with Sri Lankan investigators.<\/p>\n<h3 data-section-id=\"1kczvry\" data-start=\"1236\" data-end=\"1269\">Background &amp; Economic Context<\/h3>\n<p data-start=\"1270\" data-end=\"1457\">The cyberattack comes at a critical time as Sri Lanka continues to recover from its 2022 economic crisis, during which the country defaulted on approximately $46 billion in external debt.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1459\" data-end=\"1637\">The PDMO itself is a recently established institution, created as part of reforms linked to a $2.9 billion bailout program supported by the <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">International Monetary Fund<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1639\" data-end=\"1809\">Ironically, the attack follows recent public awareness campaigns by authorities warning citizens about cyber fraud\u2014highlighting vulnerabilities even within state systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A major cyberattack has targeted Sri Lanka\u2019s Finance Ministry, with hackers reportedly stealing $2.5 million, marking the largest cyber-related financial theft from a state institution in the country. The breach specifically affected the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO). Authorities initially detected suspicious activity involving the ministry\u2019s email system, which led to a deeper investigation. It &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}