Information Regulator hit by ‘ransomware attack’

The Information Regulator of South Africa has confirmed that their online system experienced a website crash last week. 

It is the same one that also affected the Department of Justice.

The member of the Information Regulator board Collen Weapond said they are engaging with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to check if their information has been compromised.

“Because we are housed within the department of Justice, we have a responsibility to inform our data subjects that our system will be off so there here is no further impact. At this stage, the department has confirmed that there was no material impact or compromise of data subjects’ information.”

Weapond called on the individual parties that may have experienced data breach or cyber-attack to contact the Information Regulator to assist with following up on data breaches.

“"In terms of section 22 the regulator can record security compromise by report from the individual party on voluntary basis, but also through media reports about security compromise in that case we record and write to the responsible party to ask about specific data breach in our register so that we can follow regulatory processes in terms of addressing data breach.”

Last week several government website domains could not be reached as well, but government Information Technology services provider SITA confirmed it was due to fibre cable damage.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has confirmed that the system used to administrate child maintenance payments has become the latest victim. Affected services affected include the issuing of letters of authority, bail services and email.

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