South Africa’s Department of Justice hit by a Ransomware Attack

 

South Africa's Justice Department was attacked earlier this month by a major ransomware attack and has been struggling since then to get back to normal. The attack was carried out on the 6th of September 2021, after ransomware compromised the department's entire information systems. 

It restricted the internal staff and the public from accessing any technological services, including email and websites. The judicial department handled the attack by instantaneously implementing an emergency plan, as per a Bleeping Computer report. The objective was to address such circumstances and to make sure that not every activity in the country was interrupted. 

The Justice and Constitutional Development Department declared that child support payments are now suspended until systems return online. 

The paper mentioned the statement of the Justice and Constitutional Development Speaker, Steve Mahlangu, who said, “[The attack] has led to all information systems being encrypted and unavailable to both internal employees as well as members of the public. As a result, all electronic services provided by the department are affected, including the issuing of letters of authority, bail services, e-mail, and the departmental website”.

Mahlangu noted that although it is not possible to anticipate the exact day when systems will be restored, the department will “ensure all child maintenance money is kept secure for payment to the rightful beneficiaries when the systems are back online.” 

He further stated that some departmental functions remained working despite the attack. For example, just after a change to manual mode for the recording of hearings, court sittings continued. The manual steps for issuing different legal documents were also performed. 

The Department of Justice has likewise changed to a new email system. Some employees have moved to the new email system. The department also couldn't identify the cybercriminals behind the attack. However, as the recovery of the network takes a while, the hackers were not reimbursed for the attack. 

Hackers and ransomware organizations frequently take data before an information system is encrypted. This compels victims to pay an enormous ransom fee for fear of public information leakage. However, till recently "no indication of data compromise" has been identified by departmental added IT experts.

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