Sita denies Nigerian ‘hactivists’ gained access to SA government systems

The State Information Technology Agency (Sita) has labelled as untrue the claims that government’s technology systems were breached following an alleged cyberattack.

Sita issued a statement on Monday after a flurry of reports, including allegations circulating on various social media platforms over the past 48 hours, claimed there had been unauthorised access to the government’s ICT infrastructure.

MyBroadband previously reported that a ‘hacktivism’ group known as Anonymous Nigeria was behind the alleged coordinated cyberattacks and protests in support of socio-political movements, and had threatened to leak stolen South African government data unless its demands were met.

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The publication further claimed the move was a retaliatory response against South Africa amid ‘xenophobic protests’ in parts of the country.

Based on its threat intelligence gathering, Sita said it conducted a thorough assessment of its ICT environment and confirmed that “our ICT infrastructure remains fully intact and has not been compromised”.

“There is no evidence of any unauthorised access to government data or systems, nor has any breach of security occurred through unlawful methods,” said Tlali Tlali, head of corporate affairs at Sita.

Tlali added that its security operations teams continue to monitor all systems, warning that misinformation regarding the security of government systems poses a risk not only to public confidence, but also to the integrity of the country’s digital infrastructure.

“We run a multi-tiered scan of our security environment, and we are satisfied that there are grounds to refute these claims. All systems have been tested and verified as fully operational, and no anomalies indicative of a cyberattack have been identified.”

Planned maintenance 

Sita acknowledged that one undisclosed government department website is currently unavailable due to planned maintenance and system upgrades, and not as a result of any security breach.

“The affected department is fully aware of the maintenance activity and has provided its consent for the work to be carried out during this period,” he said.

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