Sri Lanka, July 13 -- The government will use its funds to repay US $ 2.5 million to Australia unless the monies lost in the cyber theft are recovered, an official said.

Sri Lanka lost US $ 2.5 million meant for a payment to be made to the Australian government as part of its debt servicing obligations when the cyber criminals breached the computer system of the Finance Ministry.

Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. Harshana Sooriyapperuma admitted upon interrogation by MP Dr. Harsha de Silva at the recent meeting of the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) as its chairman.

Upon questioning by Dr. de Silva, it was found that the email server used in such multi-billion dollar transactions had remained outdated since 2019.

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