By The Pulseline News Desk
SriLankan Airlines has been cleared of any wrongdoing over a disputed payment to a Dubai-based service provider after investigations had found that the national carrier had successfully transferred the funds and that the cyber fraud had occurred on the recipient’s side.
Deputy Minister of Ports and Aviation Janitha Kodituwakku told the media that the payment had been correctly processed by the airline and that investigations had confirmed the cyber-attack had targeted the service provider rather than SriLankan Airlines.
“The cyber-attack happened at the recipient’s end, and therefore the payment has been marked as cleared,” the Deputy Minister has said, dismissing concerns that the airline had suffered a breach of its own financial systems.
The clarification follows questions surrounding a payment of AED 974,000 made by SriLankan Airlines to a service provider based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to an earlier statement issued by the national carrier, the issue came to light after the service provider had informed the airline that it had not received the funds. Subsequent investigations had revealed that the supplier’s official email account had been compromised by cyber criminals, who had intercepted correspondence and altered the bank account details used for the transaction.
The attackers reportedly went beyond simply changing payment instructions. Using the compromised email account, they had continued communicating through the supplier’s established official channels, providing additional documentary proof when requested and convincing SriLankan Airlines that it was dealing directly with the legitimate service provider.
As a result, the airline had processed the payment using what it had believed to be authentic banking information. Investigators had later concluded that the deception stemmed from the supplier’s compromised communication system rather than any failure in SriLankan Airlines’ payment processes or cybersecurity infrastructure.
Growing threat of business email compromise
The incident highlights the increasing global threat posed by Business Email Compromise (BEC), a form of cybercrime in which hackers infiltrate corporate email accounts to manipulate financial transactions. Rather than attacking banking systems directly, criminals often exploit trusted communication channels, altering invoices or bank account details to divert payments.
Cybersecurity experts consider BEC attacks among the most financially damaging forms of cybercrime because they rely on social engineering and impersonation rather than malware, making them difficult to detect. Organisations worldwide have lost billions of dollars through such schemes, prompting companies to introduce stricter payment verification procedures, including independent confirmation of bank account changes through separate communication channels.
Strengthening oversight
The findings are expected to reassure stakeholders after questions were raised over the handling of the payment. Officials maintain that SriLankan Airlines has fulfilled its payment obligations and that the incident originated entirely from the recipient’s compromised systems.
The case also serves as a reminder of the growing cybersecurity risks facing businesses engaged in international transactions, where even routine communications can become targets for sophisticated cybercriminals. Industry experts say organisations on both sides of commercial relationships must strengthen email security and independently verify any requests to change banking details before authorising payments.
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