City brings international experts to investigate cyberattack

JOBURG – The City of Joburg had their computer networks breached on 24 October, which affected the City's website and billing system which resulted in the unauthorised access to its information systems.

October 28, 2019

Lungile Dube 2 minutes read

The City of Johannesburg has announced that a group of international experts were working tirelessly with the municipality to ensure that no further damage is done and the system is restored following a cyberattack.

The municipality issued out a statement on 24 October informing the public about a cyberattack which affected the City’s website, e-services and the billing system. This led to the City shutting down the system as a precautionary measure while cybersecurity experts investigated the attack.

MMC for Finance and Information Communication and Technology Funzela Ngobeni confirmed the attack and that attackers had demanded a ransom of 4 Bitcoins to the value of R500 000 by the end of today (28 October).

“I can confirm that the City will not concede to their demands and we are confident that we will be able to restore systems to full functionality,” said Ngobeni.

Ngobeni said that the attack had reinforced the City’s vigilance and that the Group Forensic Department, the Hawks and the international cyber forensic partners were currently investigating the matter.

“We have made significant progress. If we continue on this trajectory we should be able to restore 80 per cent of all our systems by today. We have managed to bring up some of our critical customer-facing systems – from a technical perspective – such as our Billing (SAP ISU and CRM); Property Valuation System, Land Information System, eHealth and Libraries services,” added Ngobeni.

Furthermore, Ngobeni said the City was also working to bring up e-Services. “This attack is opportunistic in both its form and its timing. It is opportune in that it is timed to coincide with all City month-end processes affecting both supplier payments and customer payments. I cannot confirm at this point when the 20 per cent remaining systems would be restored,” he said.

Head of Information Technology in the City, Cyril Baloyi said that the City had identified loopholes in the system’s security before. However, hackers had attacked before the security plan was implemented. “We are working around the clock to resolve this. We know the hackers but unfortunately, we can’t divulge that information at the moment. Based on investigations, we have established that the hackers were not able to obtain the City’s finance records but could access information on employees’ laptops,” he said.

Meanwhile, customers are advised to pay their average consumption including at Thuso House in Stiemens Street, Braamfontein. All category A Customer Service Centres are expected to be back on-line today to deal with all billing related matters and account payments.

These centers are: