Money transfer giant MoneyGram is grappling with a multi-day outage, which the company has attributed to a ‘cybersecurity issue’ impacting its operations worldwide. The outage, which started last Friday, has disrupted in-person and online services, leaving customers and partners unable to process transactions.
In an update posted on X, MoneyGram revealed that the issue stemmed from a cybersecurity problem affecting critical systems. Initially labelled a ‘network outage,’ the company clarified the root cause and noted that it had taken preemptive measures to address the breach.
The company has also enlisted external cybersecurity experts and is coordinating efforts with law enforcement to mitigate the damage.
“Upon detection, we immediately launched an investigation and took protective steps to address it, including proactively taking systems offline which impacted network connectivity,” said the company.
The company has not disclosed the specific nature of the incident or whether customer data has been compromised, reports TechCrunch. The impact of the outage is not limited to the United States but extends to its global partners.
Banks and post offices worldwide are unable to perform transactions. The Bank of Jamaica reported that remittance companies in Jamaica cannot access MoneyGram’s platform to send or receive payment. Similarly, the United Kingdom Post Office stated that MoneyGram services are unavailable online and in-branch.
While MoneyGram has made some progress in restoring key systems, there is no clear timeline for when full services will resume. TechCrunch also reports that The New York State Department of Financial Services is closely monitoring the situation.
This disruption raises significant concerns for MoneyGram’s millions of users, many of whom rely on the service for critical remittance payments.
MoneyGram is the second-largest money transfer service globally, facilitating more than $200 billion in transactions annually across 200 countries and territories.
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