The Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office (Cipro) says its Web site is possibly being maliciously attacked by hackers.
The organisation has been experiencing problems with its site since December, which has caused havoc with company filings of annual returns, which are currently due. At the time, Cipro released a statement admitting it was experiencing severe "computer network and infrastructure"-related problems, which caused the site to go down.
However, the organisation now believes its firewall, which is being managed outside the company, has been compromised. “The organisation is of the view that the firewall has been compromised by hackers with an intention to interrupt Cipro services to the public,” Cipro said to ITWeb in a statement.
Cipro says its monitoring tools show that, since the beginning of the year, its servers and networks have shown a 97% to 100% availability, which does not account for the Web site's access troubles.
“Walk-in customers continue to receive excellent services from our Pretoria and Cape Town offices. Where possible, customers who are experiencing problems with the Web site may consider visiting any of the aforementioned offices,” it adds.
The company says it is working with technicians and contracted engineers to try and resolve the online troubles. “We are currently hard at work with relevant IT stakeholders to ensure that our IT systems are protected from any unlawful intrusion.”
Cipro hoped to have the site up and running by today; however, ITWeb tested both www.cipro.co.za and www.cipro.gov.za this morning, to find that both are intermittently accessible.
If customers manage to access the site, a large banner across the page says: “Cipro is experiencing high volumes of annual return lodgements resulting in customers being thrown off the Web site. Customers are urged to submit annual returns throughout the month and not wait until month-end for lodging annual returns.”
Opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) has lambasted the organisation for not having its site available at a time when annual filings are expected to be submitted thick and fast.
“It is equally concerning that the extent of the problem forced Cipro to waive its prescribed penalties for the late submission of returns during December 2009,” says Andricus van der Westhuizen, the DA's shadow deputy minister of trade and industry.
Van der Westhuizen says annual returns and penalty fees make up a significant amount of Cipro's income. “These fees had to be waived several times during the past year due to continuous network malfunction.”
The online submissions option forms part of Cipro's attempted turnaround strategy and faced nothing but trouble since November. The office is also trying to implement a new business strategy and improve its organisational structure.
By February 2011, the organisation is expected to have introduced a digital signature, digitised the 700 million documents it has in its archive, changed its back office to improve workflow, and built a contact centre to increase access to its services.
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