Mereja Forum

[DefendTheTruth]

I am not trying to rush to the conclusion of the serious issue that has affected the biggest commercial bank of the nation, but trying to understand.

What do we know so far?

It is reported by media and confirmed by the CEO of the bank during a press briefing that followed the incident to have been related to/caused by a maintenance activity that was conducted on the Weekend, according to the CEO, Mr. Abe Sano. We also know in general terms that technical systems du experience some sort of glitches due to different causes. A banking system is one of the top critical systems ever developed by software engineering profession, due to the centrality of money for the security and well-being of a nation and the wealth of its citizens. It is about money, after all.

As such a banking system is subjected to a rigorous quality and dependability tests during its development and operations. The functionality of the system that was reported to have failed is one of the core functionality of a banking system, checking the balance of the account holder before paying out the requested withdraw. It is very rare, if not never, that such a core functionality fails in a software system of any discipline. Due to this very reason it raises now if it was intentional or by some sort of inadvertent action(s). Modern software systems do have a built in security mechanism to warn human interaction in case of a core functionality might get affected. As an example any PC-user in the windows environment do get some sort of warning when the user tries to delete some sort of a file in the system.

This implies that the chance of somebody inadvertently causing the mal-functioning of such a core functionality of the system is nearly next to zero, if not impossible.

We can also safely assume that the human actor working on the system must have been well experienced and full aware of what he/she is doing on the system, specially in the case of such vital sector and the core functionality of the system.

If I try to put all these and many more pieces together, then the chances of somebody unintentionally causing such a "glitch" is nearly zero, in a modern software maintenance and operation procedures.

If it was not unintentional, then the next big question is who was behind it?

Mr. Abe Sano said clearly that there were too many attempts to compromise the security of the banking and its tools but to no avail at all of the occasions the attempts were made. Any serious intruder into the software system of a bank will not, once succeeded to get access, limit to just making the transfer of money to a different account or withdraw free and go home.

The likelihood of the maintenance of the system and planned attack from outside coinciding could also be very very minute, if not impossible.

After all these scenarios the next more likely possibility is an attempt of inexperienced but with malicious intent from inside the bank, who opted to compromise the security of the bank and as such also the nation.

Who are they?

The failed and debilitated politicians of the country, who have tried to grab power by any means possible and miserably failed so far?

I am tempted to think so, but I will wait for the authorities to conduct their thorough investigation and let the public know who trying to destroy the nation in the name of political opposition.

[DefendTheTruth]

I came across this briefing of the CEO and he indicated the cause was a faulty software, a sort of extension software, which was supposed to add functionality to main system.

The functionality is supposed to roll-back an unsuccessful transaction, which couldn't have been succeeded for some reason. In IT there is something called ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated and Durable) which is the basic characteristic of a transaction. Simply put a transaction is a unit, which will be done either as unit or not at all. If a step of a transaction is unsuccessful for some reason, then there is what is called Roll-back (undo the changes) of all the steps, to leave it in a consistent and original state.

The additional functionality was intended, according to the CEO, to automate the manual reconciliation work, which has been done by the employees of the bank so far. The software piece was intended to automate this functionality. Instead of just rolling back the unsuccessful transactions, it did also roll back the already successful transactions, which means the money that was withdrawn was credited again to the account.

Very silly error, if it was indeed unintentional! The vendor will be held accountable, no but and if here, assuming it was so!

But obviously this was clearly a malfunctioning software deployed before adequate testing (verification and validation). It an embarrassment for the state of the art software development business.

[TGAA]

I am not trying to rush to the conclusion of the serious issue that has affected the biggest commercial bank of the nation, but trying to understand.

What do we know so far?

It is reported by media and confirmed by the CEO of the bank during a press briefing that followed the incident to have been related to/caused by a maintenance activity that was conducted on the Weekend, according to the CEO, Mr. Abe Sano. We also know in general terms that technical systems du experience some sort of glitches due to different causes. A banking system is one of the top critical systems ever developed by software engineering profession, due to the centrality of money for the security and well-being of a nation and the wealth of its citizens. It is about money, after all.

As such a banking system is subjected to a rigorous quality and dependability tests during its development and operations. The functionality of the system that was reported to have failed is one of the core functionality of a banking system, checking the balance of the account holder before paying out the requested withdraw. It is very rare, if not never, that such a core functionality fails in a software system of any discipline. Due to this very reason it raises now if it was intentional or by some sort of inadvertent action(s). Modern software systems do have a built in security mechanism to warn human interaction in case of a core functionality might get affected. As an example any PC-user in the windows environment do get some sort of warning when the user tries to delete some sort of a file in the system.

This implies that the chance of somebody inadvertently causing the mal-functioning of such a core functionality of the system is nearly next to zero, if not impossible.

We can also safely assume that the human actor working on the system must have been well experienced and full aware of what he/she is doing on the system, specially in the case of such vital sector and the core functionality of the system.

If I try to put all these and many more pieces together, then the chances of somebody unintentionally causing such a "glitch" is nearly zero, in a modern software maintenance and operation procedures.

If it was not unintentional, then the next big question is who was behind it?

Mr. Abe Sano said clearly that there were too many attempts to compromise the security of the banking and its tools but to no avail at all of the occasions the attempts were made. Any serious intruder into the software system of a bank will not, once succeeded to get access, limit to just making the transfer of money to a different account or withdraw free and go home.

The likelihood of the maintenance of the system and planned attack from outside coinciding could also be very very minute, if not impossible.

After all these scenarios the next more likely possibility is an attempt of inexperienced but with malicious intent from inside the bank, who opted to compromise the security of the bank and as such also the nation.

Who are they?

The failed and debilitated politicians of the country, who have tried to grab power by any means possible and miserably failed so far?

I am tempted to think so, but I will wait for the authorities to conduct their thorough investigation and let the public know who trying to destroy the nation in the name of political opposition.

"The failed and debilitated politicians of the country, who have tried to grab power by any means possible and miserably failed so far?"

All this merry-go-round is leading nowhere but to the conclusion you've already reached: it's either Fano or Fano sympathizers who did the hacking ? That where your insinuation ends ."I am not trying to rush to the conclusion" while you already did. The record is crystal clear: those who currently disclose information about the funds held in individual accounts and subsequently blackmail them into paying millions are the corrupt authorities placed in positions to lead the bank, mostly the new corrupt Oromuma gangs. This didn't occur during Mengistu's or Meles's reign; however, it has become rampant during Abiy's tenure. Now, you're searching for a scapegoat where there is none. Lying and deflecting are your specialties. You can't hoodwink anybody. We know where the stink is coming from—it's from the top."

[Educator]

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[sesame]

I read somewhere there were multiple 100 million birr withdrawals on Thursday. The management fearing a cyber attack authorized the systems people to check for it. The glitch was a result of the software fix. The question is, was the software fix a deliberate bug to hide the initial robbery?

[Right]

DDT,
Why in the world do you have to write all this garbage to tell us who you think did it. But then you don’t have a name. That is exactly what happened in the Oromuma led incompetent and dysfunctional CBE.
The PP government simply doesn’t know how to govern.

[DefendTheTruth]

DDT,
Why in the world do you have to write all this garbage to tell us who you think did it. But then you don’t have a name. That is exactly what happened in the Oromuma led incompetent and dysfunctional CBE.
The PP government simply doesn’t know how to govern.

It seems that you are dying for some names, yeah?

But I am not qualified to list the names, those in the position should do, which they have already done.

Isku came recently through his usual camera window and declared the new structure and strategy of liberating Amhara from Ethiopia. Did you miss that too?

Isku never sleeps, until he is hanged in public, we told that much long time ago.

My role is here just trying to make the bigger picture of the reported "system glitch". You like it or not it was not some sort of inadvertent act of those involved. It is simply not possible to make such very obvious error in such a critical system. Mark my words!

If you still dying for some names, then the next report may help you with that too.

Enjoy the show, it is to begin in ernst yet!

[Right]

Garbage

[DefendTheTruth]

Garbage

It seems that you are one of those who advised the gullible students to rush and withdraw as many as they can from the bank during the free-money vending machine.

Yes, it is a garbage for you.

Damage has been done, there should be an accountability, NOW!

More than 38 million people hold accounts at CBE. The bank says its ATM services are now fully operational, though it may want to rethink its slogan: "The bank you can always rely on!"

https://www.techspot.com/news/102326-et ... hdraw.html

Not only the failure of the banking system but also the worse condition that we are over taken by a mass of youth incapable of thinking any thing logically and rationally, which they could have done if only they thought about "this is too good to be true".

This is a big challenge for the nation's future!

[TGAA]

DDT,
Why in the world do you have to write all this garbage to tell us who you think did it. But then you don’t have a name. That is exactly what happened in the Oromuma led incompetent and dysfunctional CBE.
The PP government simply doesn’t know how to govern.

It seems that you are dying for some names, yeah?

But I am not qualified to list the names, those in the position should do, which they have already done.

Isku came recently through his usual camera window and declared the new structure and strategy of liberating Amhara from Ethiopia. Did you miss that too?

Isku never sleeps, until he is hanged in public, we told that much long time ago.

My role is here just trying to make the bigger picture of the reported "system glitch". You like it or not it was not some sort of inadvertent act of those involved. It is simply not possible to make such very obvious error in such a critical system. Mark my words!

If you still dying for some names, then the next report may help you with that too.

Enjoy the show, it is to begin in ernst yet!

A paranoid Abiy, in his misguided attempt to control the uprising, is repeatedly shooting himself in the foot. He erroneously believes that by fabricating charges and imprisoning innocent Amharas, while ostentatiously displaying rusted Kalashnikovs pulled from storage, he can intimidate Ethiopians who demand his departure. However, one must wonder: after filling Addis Ababa's prisons with thousands of innocents without evidence of wrongdoing, are we to believe that he has finally honed in on the true targets among the Fano movement? Don't count on it.

The only silver lining in this bleak scenario is that his incompetence is laid bare when he clumsily, and perhaps inadvertently, targets innocent civilians.
Cluless ,those who oppose him, perhaps are right under his nose.In every aspect of his administration, ineptness seems to be a badge of honor.

[Tiago]

The Automatic teller machines (ATM) is there to pay out as long as few conditions are met.
The banks software are in place to allow/refuse transaction based on set of conditions.
Unless someone deliberately removes or alters the parameters of the conditional statements,such payouts we just noticed can't be limited to a case of ATM malfunction.Some ATMs pay double the amount requested after verification,but still declines in the case of insufficient fund.
All glitches are so far are attributed to human error or deliberate interference.

[DefendTheTruth]

Seyoum Teshome has also something to say about the recent "glitch", finally.

It is a sabotage, he stated. Mostly he bases his claims on some internal sources.

I was also wondering why the president of the bank, Mr. Abe Sano, decided to take the matter into his own hands and went before the press (he made the issue a matter for the Chief). Normally, he could have assigned someone in a technical position to explain to the media. When that person becomes untrustworthy, then you have to take the issue to yourself.

The glitch might have been stopped, but the talk is just beginning.

The specific cause of the technical glitch is currently unknown. However, Getachew Temare, a human rights activist in Ethiopia, told Disruption Banking that “the recent financial debacle at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is indicative of a wider state of affairs at play.”

“Despite the significant financial loss, the bank has not acknowledged the issue fully or provided a satisfactory explanation. The government and bank officials attributed the problem to a sudden glitch. However, the root cause of the major disruption lies in the government’s measures, which have destabilised the bank’s operations,” he argued.

Temare suggested that the Ethiopian government has been meddling in the CBE’s operations which, while not directly responsible for the technical glitch, have created the conditions under which mistakes are more likely.

“This includes rapidly reshuffling senior officers and heads of the bank, leading to a decline in the institution’s trust and workforce confidence. Furthermore, the government, through new bank officers, has made unstudied and reckless management decisions, such as firing long-serving employees under various pretexts like educational qualification irregularities and fake credentials, to replace them with its thousands of own loyalists,” Temare explained. “This raises questions about how thousands of people could have been hired with fake educational credentials in the first place.”

Human right activists also technical issues, as a computer scientist.

https://www.disruptionbanking.com/2024/ ... ilisation/

[DefendTheTruth]

አትቁመጥመጥ እንጂ፣ ቀስ በል፣ የበላም አንዳንዴ ዝም ማለት ይችላል ና!

ባንክ አንዘርፍም ነበር ያላችዉት?

I am not trying to rush to the conclusion of the serious issue that has affected the biggest commercial bank of the nation, but trying to understand.

What do we know so far?

It is reported by media and confirmed by the CEO of the bank during a press briefing that followed the incident to have been related to/caused by a maintenance activity that was conducted on the Weekend, according to the CEO, Mr. Abe Sano. We also know in general terms that technical systems du experience some sort of glitches due to different causes. A banking system is one of the top critical systems ever developed by software engineering profession, due to the centrality of money for the security and well-being of a nation and the wealth of its citizens. It is about money, after all.

As such a banking system is subjected to a rigorous quality and dependability tests during its development and operations. The functionality of the system that was reported to have failed is one of the core functionality of a banking system, checking the balance of the account holder before paying out the requested withdraw. It is very rare, if not never, that such a core functionality fails in a software system of any discipline. Due to this very reason it raises now if it was intentional or by some sort of inadvertent action(s). Modern software systems do have a built in security mechanism to warn human interaction in case of a core functionality might get affected. As an example any PC-user in the windows environment do get some sort of warning when the user tries to delete some sort of a file in the system.

This implies that the chance of somebody inadvertently causing the mal-functioning of such a core functionality of the system is nearly next to zero, if not impossible.

We can also safely assume that the human actor working on the system must have been well experienced and full aware of what he/she is doing on the system, specially in the case of such vital sector and the core functionality of the system.

If I try to put all these and many more pieces together, then the chances of somebody unintentionally causing such a "glitch" is nearly zero, in a modern software maintenance and operation procedures.

If it was not unintentional, then the next big question is who was behind it?

Mr. Abe Sano said clearly that there were too many attempts to compromise the security of the banking and its tools but to no avail at all of the occasions the attempts were made. Any serious intruder into the software system of a bank will not, once succeeded to get access, limit to just making the transfer of money to a different account or withdraw free and go home.

The likelihood of the maintenance of the system and planned attack from outside coinciding could also be very very minute, if not impossible.

After all these scenarios the next more likely possibility is an attempt of inexperienced but with malicious intent from inside the bank, who opted to compromise the security of the bank and as such also the nation.

Who are they?

The failed and debilitated politicians of the country, who have tried to grab power by any means possible and miserably failed so far?

I am tempted to think so, but I will wait for the authorities to conduct their thorough investigation and let the public know who trying to destroy the nation in the name of political opposition.

"The failed and debilitated politicians of the country, who have tried to grab power by any means possible and miserably failed so far?"

All this merry-go-round is leading nowhere but to the conclusion you've already reached: it's either Fano or Fano sympathizers who did the hacking ? That where your insinuation ends ."I am not trying to rush to the conclusion" while you already did. The record is crystal clear: those who currently disclose information about the funds held in individual accounts and subsequently blackmail them into paying millions are the corrupt authorities placed in positions to lead the bank, mostly the new corrupt Oromuma gangs. This didn't occur during Mengistu's or Meles's reign; however, it has become rampant during Abiy's tenure. Now, you're searching for a scapegoat where there is none. Lying and deflecting are your specialties. You can't hoodwink anybody. We know where the stink is coming from—it's from the top."

[DefendTheTruth]

The President of the bank, Ato Abe Sano, has now revealed that the technical issues will be dealt with the technical body that we have set-up for this issue. The result of the investigation will be revealed to the public once the body has finalized its work.

In the mean time we also know now who is currently hell-bent on robbing the state and the public of their hard earned money.

There is no way that such a sabotage will escape any sort of scrutiny and the culprit must have done it deliberately.

At the same time the media organisations, among which also BBC, should come forward and explain to their readers about where they got their figure of 41 M Dollar, which should have been in terms of Billions of the local currency.

[Educator]

490,000 transactions ×10,000 Birr on average = ?

[DefendTheTruth]

While the cause of sabotage at the CBE, the biggest in the country, is not yet revealed to the public, there comes on top of that yet the national power-supply disruption, which affected almost the whole country.

Ethiopia is the hub of electric power in the region but should also be prepared to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The disruption of power supply for just few minutes may cause huge damage to the economy of the nation and the well being of the citizens. Power is the underlying infrastructure to sustain modern way of life.