City of Joburg suffers a computer network breach, website down
JOHANNESBURG – The City's cyber experts have taken immediate and appropriate actions to reinforce security measures and mitigate any potential impacts of the breach.
The City of Johannesburg detected a network breach yesterday, 24 October, which is said to have resulted in unauthorised access to its information systems.
The City said their cyber experts are investigating the incident and have taken immediate and appropriate actions to reinforce security measures and mitigate any potential impacts of the breach.
Several customer-facing systems, such as the City’s website, e-services, billing centre and the call centre have been compromised.
The City expressed that the shutdown which is a precautionary measure is expected to last for 24 hours. A number of employees reported that they had received a ransom note that read, “all your servers have and data have been hacked. We have dozens of back doors inside your city. We have control of everything in your city. We also compromised all passwords and sensitive data such as finance and personal population information.”
The city has advised all of their customers to postpone any visits to regional customer service centres. “Municipal account payments can be done via EFT and third party payment providers such as Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay and other, ” said the City in a released statement.
The City apologises for the inconvenience caused and will alert customers once the system has been restored.
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