The Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) was targeted in a cybersecurity attack earlier this week.
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This comes after ICT services were rendered temporarily inaccessible following a breach of their system on Monday evening.
According to WCPP spokesperson Matthys Odendal, the provincial parliament experienced a cybersecurity breach overnight.
‘As cybersecurity is the single biggest threat in the world currently, the WCPP has invested heavily in cybersecurity measures, business continuity and disaster recovery plans.’
‘These plans have been activated and the matter reported to the SAPS and the State Security Agency.’
‘To this end, the institution is currently in the process of recovering its systems from backups to a secure environment.’
‘As per the plans, this will be done systematically, and services will be restored in a phased approach.’
‘No WCPP business will be affected,’ he said.
He added that the planned sitting of the House scheduled for Thursday would not be affected by this and would go ahead as planned.
Meanwhile, police in the province said they were not aware of the incident.
The WCPP is just the latest public sector office to feel the effects of a cyberattack in recent years.
Two years ago, Transnet was hit by a cyberattack that forced it to declare force majeure at container terminals and switch to manual processing of cargo.
The SA Reserve Bank experienced an attempted hacking by a criminal syndicate in August 2022.
The Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council, the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council, and the Safety and Security Sector Bargaining Council were also hit by a ransomware attack earlier this year.
According to a cybercrime report by Interpol, more than 230 million cyber threats were detected in South Africa in 2021 – the highest number on the continent. South Africa lost more than $570 million (about R10 billion) to cybercrime in 2016, the report added.
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