After shutting down all CoJ systems last week due to the cyber-attack by the Shadow Kill Hackers on 24 October, the MMC for Finance, Funzela Ngobeni, has said that significant progress has been made towards restoring the City’s services. Several services have already been restored and they are working towards full restoration as soon as possible.
A huge concern for many Johannesburg residents was their billing information, but Ngobeni confirmed that the billing system was not affected by the incident. “I can further confirm that none of our customer’s personal or financial details were compromised following the cyber-attack.”
This is the second cyber-attack on City of Johannesburg systems this year, with City Power being hacked in July. Two other major cyber-attacks occurred in South Africa this year, one on Eskom in February, and the other on Garmin in September.
Self-proclaimed software experts, Checkpoint Software Technologies, commented on the entire situation, saying that the attacks are yet another reminder of the security risks that come with the growing use of digital platforms.
They said that these attacks serve as proof that South Africa is not immune to cyber-attacks, and organisations and individuals need to be security-focused.
This attack has been referred to as ransomware – which is a malware designed to deny access to a user’s computer and its data by encrypting all the data and demanding a ransom in order for the victim to regain access.
The number of cyber-attacks is predicted to increase substantially in the next year. The value placed on data is extremely high, making it an easy target for criminals who know that most organisations will be tempted to pay the ransom to regain their data.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the data will be returned undamaged after the ransom has been paid. Paying the ransom may even prompt the criminals to attempt to get a higher amount of money out of their target.
According to Checkpoint Software Technologies, a key thing to remember is that these attacks are preventable if the correct security solutions are in place.
