Cyberattack Forces MoneyGram Offline
MoneyGram International, a Dallas-based money transfer service, has taken its operations offline due to a cybersecurity issue, affecting both online and in-person payment services for several days. The company, which serves over 50 million people in more than 200 countries and territories, is working with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to investigate the breach and restore normal operations, although it has not confirmed if ransomware is involved. The outage was first reported as a "network outage" over the weekend, but MoneyGram later confirmed that it was due to a digital intrusion. With millions of customers unable to access services, the company is urgently addressing the issue but has not provided a timeline for when operations will resume.
As a U.S.-based company, MoneyGram's disruption has a far-reaching global impact, particularly on communities that depend heavily on remittances for essential expenses like food, bills, and emergency costs. The service is widely used by immigrants across the U.S. to send money to family members in countries such as India and Mexico, with remittances to Mexico alone reaching a record $55.9 billion in 2022. This outage not only affects those sending money but also leaves millions of recipients without access to much-needed funds. Given MoneyGram’s extensive network and access to sensitive customer data, this cybersecurity breach underscores the vulnerability of financial institutions to digital threats and the significant consequences these incidents can have worldwide.