BY SAMSON OKWAKOL
KAMPALA, Uganda—The MTN Uganda has said it wants to government investigate the recent break-in to the telecoms data center by alleged security operatives.
“MTN (U) takes this criminal incident seriously and is working with the government of Uganda to establish the identity and motive of the perpetrators and bring them to account,” Said MTN Uganda Chairman, Charles Mbire in a press Statement.
Mbire notes that on Monday, 2 July 2018, at around 5pm, two employees of Huawei Uganda (a contractor of MTN Uganda) were kidnapped from MTN Towers, Hannington Road by heavily armed men in civilian clothing who claimed to be Internal Security Organisation (ISO) agents.
He said the kidnapped individuals were illegally detained in an un-gazetted area and later forced to grant unauthorised physical access to the MTN Uganda’s Data Centre at Mutundwe.
Mbires said while at the Data Centre, there were several attempts by the intruders, to log into MTN Uganda’s servers over a period of two hours.
He whoever reiterates that efforts do so were unsuccessful because of MTN Uganda’s robust information security systems and that no data was accessed or compromised by the intruders.
He said these incidents were captured on their CCTV cameras and the footage has been shared with the police.
The incident was reported to the Minister of Security and the Chief of Military Intelligence. The intruders subsequently withdrew from the Data Centre around midnight.
Mbire said MTN (U) formally reported the matter to the Uganda Communication Commission. And that, MTN Uganda also opened a case at CID Headquarters- Kibuli under reference number GEF 727/2018.
He said contrary to various print and social media reports, MTN Uganda is not aware of any investigation into alleged breach of national security involving it or tax evasion on its part.
MTN (U) is committed to collaborating with the Uganda Police and other security agencies as they investigate this incident.
