Hawks expect 'Master Deeds' update
Seven months after South Africa's biggest data leak, and the elite crime fighting unit says it hopes to get an update soon.
The Hawks is expected to announce an update on its investigation into the so-called 'Master Deeds' data leak, the biggest South Africa has seen so far.
"That's something that we have been questioning as well, because it has been a while since we got a report," Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said. "So we are hoping that by next week we will be able to know exactly what transpired."
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This is the first indication of any developments in trying to establish how millions of South Africans' personal information made it onto the publicly accessible web server.
The Right2Know Campaign wrote to the Information Regulator in April, claiming it had received no word on its complaints about the leak.
The file, entitled Master Deeds, contained around 60 million records, which include ID numbers, home addresses and contact details.
Australian web security expert Troy Hunt, who exposed the leak, confirmed to Jacaranda FM News at the time that the file had been publicly accessible for at least seven months.
He further warned it might have been exposed since April 2015, a date found on the file as well as the web server.
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"We view this matter in a very serious light," Mulaudzi said in October. "We have made sure that our cybercrime team works around the clock to make sure that we find out exactly who was responsible for this serious breach."
The leak was traced back to the real estate group Jigsaw Holdings.
The company is yet to respond to the claims.