The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) refutes claims that its systems and government ICT infrastructure have been subjected to a cyber attack or unauthorised access.
The government agency further labels the allegations as misinformation.
According to SITA, claims that its systems were under attack began circulating on social media platforms, particularly X, at the weekend.
However, based on its threat intelligence capability, SITA says it conducted a “thorough assessment” of its ICT environment ahead of the emergence of the allegations.
“We can confirm that our ICT infrastructure remains fully intact and has not been compromised,” says Tlali Tlali, head of corporate affairs at SITA. “There is no evidence of any unauthorised access to government data or systems, nor has any breach of security occurred through unlawful methods.”
Further emphasising that there has been no disruption to its systems, SITA states that its security operations teams operate on a continuous, 24/7 basis and are equipped with monitoring and threat-detection capabilities.
“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 cyber attack have been identified.”
An entity under the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies portfolio, SITA sits as a central pillar of government's IT procurement. It is also responsible for developing, operating and/or maintaining ICT services consumed by government departments.
It acknowledges that one government department website is undergoing planned maintenance and is currently unavailable. SITA has not divulged the department’s name.
“We wish to clarify that the downtime of a website of that department is the direct result of a scheduled and planned maintenance window, which includes system upgrades and enhancements intended to improve the performance, resilience and security of the department’s online presence,” Tlali explains.
“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. This is a routine operational task and bears no relation whatsoever to the claims of a cyber attack or any form of systems compromise.”
Claims of attacks on SITA’s systems come as the ICT infrastructure of public and private organisations has faced a barrage of compromises, pointing to an escalating and sustained pattern of data breaches and cyber attacks targeting critical institutions across the country.
Standard Bank, Liberty, Statistics South Africa, South African Police Service medical aid scheme Polmed and Wits University have disclosed that their systems have been compromised by hackers in recent months.
Cyber security company Surfshark’s quarterly analysis of global data breaches shows South Africa ranks as the 42nd most breached country in first quarter of this year.
Since 2004, South Africa has been ranked as the second most breached country in Africa, with 45.7 million compromised user accounts.
Tlali advises parties and stakeholders to rely on official communications from SITA and the relevant government departments regarding the status and security of government ICT systems.
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