Caixa Econômica Federal has temporarily limited deposits and bill payments at lottery outlets following a technological incident recorded on Tuesday (21), which interrupted operations at several units across the country.
Although lottery business owners reported unauthorized financial transactions and suspect a possible cyberattack, the bank has not confirmed this hypothesis and states that it will not cause losses to the lottery outlets or to customers.
As a contingency measure, deposits and bill payments from other banks are now limited to R$2 thousand per transaction across the entire Lottery Channel.
The restriction will remain in effect until Saturday (25), with an expectation of returning to usual limits on Monday (27), should the system normalization be completed.
The affected services are:
- Receipt of bill payments from other banks (code 850100)
- Deposits (code 012081)
According to Caixa, the measure seeks to ensure continuity of operations while technical teams work to normalize the operational environment.
Network normalization
In a communication sent to network partners, Caixa stated that it will contact directly the units that experienced communication problems during the incident.
The president of Febralot, Ricardo Amado Costa, said that the system is being gradually restored and classified the R$2 thousand limitation as an emergency measure, with an expectation of resuming usual limits at the beginning of next week.
In addition to the transaction restrictions, some lottery outlets in Bahia were instructed to check the unlinking of certain accounts during the normalization process.
Caixa also determined that inconsistencies in the transactions from July 21 be recorded on the Conexão Parceiros platform, while maintaining normal accounting procedures.
So far, neither Caixa nor Febralot has disclosed details about the technical origin of the incident.
R$1 million diverted in Piauí
Following the operational disruption recorded in Caixa’s lottery network, two units in Piauí had approximately R$1 million diverted during the incident.
The cases occurred at lottery outlets in Teresina and Parnaíba, with estimated losses of R$750 thousand and R$250 thousand, respectively, according to the Sindicato dos Empresários Lotéricos do Estado do Piauí (Sindillo).
Measures follow failures across several states
The contingency measures were adopted one day after an operational disruption that affected lottery outlets in different Brazilian states.
Anel (Associação Nacional de Empresários Lotéricos) stated that the technological incident was, in fact, an organized cyberattack that caught the entire network by surprise. According to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, some outlets reported attacks involving nearly R$500 thousand.
On Tuesday (21), business owners reported unrecognized financial transactions on their terminals, including automatic bill payments that, according to the operators, had not been authorized. Faced with these occurrences, several units shut down their equipment after internal alerts.
Establishments in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Piauí were affected, with some lottery outlets estimating losses of hundreds of thousands of reais before operations were suspended.
So far, Caixa continues to withhold technical details about the origin of the incident, classifying it as a “technological incident.”