Prof. Anuradhi Hapuarachchi, an academic affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who holds a DBA in artificial intelligence, has warned of “catastrophic consequences” from the USD 2.5 million Treasury cyber heist unless urgent remedial action is taken.
In an interview with Divaina Finance and Economic Editor Shyam Nuwan Ganewatta on ITV, Prof. Hapuarachchi said the theft could enable manipulation of fiscal policy itself and posed a major threat to the national economy. The overseas origin of the attack, she said, made recovery of the stolen funds extremely difficult.
She listed specific downstream risks if confidence in the system erodes: increased taxes, delayed salary payments to public servants and pensioners, and damage to Sri Lanka’s broader digital payment infrastructure.
“There hadn’t been a previous instance of such theft of funds from the Treasury in any part of the world,” she said, adding that public confidence in the banking system must be urgently restored.
Prof. Hapuarachchi compared the breach to the 2016 Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, in which attackers attempted to move close to USD 1 billion from Bangladesh Bank’s Federal Reserve Bank of New York account. Hackers stole USD 101 million before transfers were stopped: USD 20 million sent to Sri Lanka was recovered, but only USD 15 million of USD 81 million sent to the Philippines was retrieved.
She underscored the political stakes given that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake holds the Finance portfolio directly. Failing to ringfence the banking system, she said, was equivalent to “handing over the keys of a house to thieves.”
The intervention comes as Parliament held a detailed debate on May 6 over institutional failures inside the Finance Ministry. Earlier, Dilith Jayaweera and other opposition figures had argued the breach could not be attributed to external hackers alone.
Source: The Island.
