The Mangaung Metro confirmed in a public notice yesterday that the security breach on its network was caused by ransomware.
Ransomware is a form of malware which encrypts the victim’s data or locks down the system, disrupting the operations of the victim organisation by rendering their data and system inaccessible.
The municipality’s information technology (IT) system has been offline since Tuesday, 24 October.
Dirk Kotze, DA councillor and IT specialist, said earlier this week DA councillors were overwhelmed by complaints from residents unable to get assistance from officials when enquiring about their municipal accounts. Law firms have complained that they are unable to receive clearance certificates from the municipality.
Qondile Khedama, spokesperson for the Mangaung Metro, said in the notice the cyber attack rendered all applications used by the municipality inoperable. This includes access to critical application systems such as the financial system, the human resources system, telephones, email and internet access for all users.
He said the city manager, Sello More, is in communication with both state-owned agencies and private companies such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to further analyse the severity of the cyber attack, but also to build capacity of the city’s network.
Khedama said the cyber attack has had a negative effect on service delivery, making payments to service providers and payments for tools and trade difficult. Some of the services affected included the delivery of diesel, approval of building plans, indigent burials, clearance certificates, and much more.
“Most of all it affected the interaction between the municipality, community, and other stakeholders.”
Some of the other threats posed by cyber attacks include illegal acces to company and client information, loss of data, financial loss, leakage of personal information, business disruption, fraud, and reputational damage.
Kotze said the DA raised concerns about the vulnerability of the system in 2019, questioning the integrity of the information system after it was down for two weeks and no contingency plans were in place for business to continue if the information system crashed, he said.
He said in July 2018, the Mangaung Metro experienced a system failure due to the lack of maintenance on several system servers.
Kotze said the damage to the system is huge and the DA is going to report the metro tot the Information Regulator.
Khedama assured residents and stakeholders that the city is doing its best to recover the system and to put a recovery plan in place with the intention of restoring all critical services.
