Hackers stole the money Sri Lanka wanted to use to pay off a debt to Australia. “They diverted payments illegally”
The government of Sri Lanka has launched an investigation after a group of alleged hackers stole at least 2.5 million dollars from the accounts of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance, money intended for the payment of the debt to Australia, informs EFE on Friday, taken over by Agerpres.
“In January 2026, we learned that a group of hackers tried to access the Department of Foreign Resources (…), intercepted emails related to debt transactions between the government and Australia (…) and managed to fraudulently divert almost 2.5 million US dollars that were due,” Finance Minister Harshana Suriyapperuma said in a press conference on Thursday.
Suriyapperuma explained that although the government had created a commission to investigate what happened, the theft was not made public until Thursday so as not to facilitate the escape of the criminals.
The cyber attack comes as Sri Lanka tries to recover from the severe economic crisis of 2022, when the country was forced to default on its foreign debt. The situation caused widespread shortages of food, medicine and fuel for months.
At the end of 2025, Sri Lanka agreed to a restructuring of its debt with the Australian government, which allowed it to change the payment terms of about 39 million US dollars.
Australia's embassy in Sri Lanka said it was aware of “irregularities in payments” to the ocean country.
“Sri Lankan authorities are investigating the matter and are working with Australian officials who are supporting the investigation. Australia remains committed to supporting Sri Lanka's return to debt sustainability,” Ambassador Matthew Duckworth said on X.
The Ministry of Finance stated that the intention to pay the debt was obvious. “However, criminal actors intervened in the process and illegally diverted the payments instead of allowing the money to reach the intended recipient,” the Sri Lankan ministry lamented.
In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government in Colombo reached an agreement at the technical level to unlock approximately 700 million dollars. In 2023, the IMF agreed with Sri Lanka a bailout program of three billion dollars.
