from ALFRED SHILONGO in Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia Bureau
WINDHOEK, (CAJ News) – NAMIBIA is reeling from arguably its worst cyber attack the Southern African country has ever suffered.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services and Telecom Namibia, the national operator, have been the main targets recently.
Telecom Namibia’s ordeal started in November when Hunters International hacked the telco’s system.
Lately, information copied from the company was leaked to the dark web after the mobile operator refused to negotiate to pay any ransom.
Stanley Shanapinda, Telecom Namibia, Chief Executive Officer, disclosed that hackers had copied and compromised 626 gigabytes of the company’s data, seemingly a minute percentage of the over 3,7 terabytes of data at the company’s disposal.
He downplayed indications those affected after their personal information was spread in the dark will seek legal recourse.
“We don’t want to speculate what citizens or customers will do with regards to that particular incident,” Shanapinda said.
He assured Namibians that the company had put measures in place to safeguard confidential and sensitive data.
“We will continue to share updates on any further developments as they come to light,” the executive said.
Hackers have also attacked the systems of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Ben Nangombe, Executive Director in the ministry, said the attack had breached the pharmaceutical management information system.
It is a web-based platform used to visualise and present actual aggregate data on essential medicine stock status, number of persons enrolled for particular services.
“It’s not names of people. It’s numbers that have been compromised,” he said, assuring details of individuals had not been compromised.
The Office of the Prime Minister, currently occupied by Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, is concerned
.
“These people are stealing data. It’s their job to do it. Our job is to prevent them from doing it,” said Ben Nashandi, Executive Director at the office.
“We will be working round the clock to ensure all our data centres are safeguarded and if any incident happens, it is proactively identified and measures are taken to address it.”
Emilia Nghikembua, Chief Executive Officer of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), said, “As a nation, we must remain vigilant and proactive in defending ourselves against these threats to ensure the safety and resilience of our digital infrastructure.”
The Namibia Cyber Security Incidents Response Team is responsible for detecting, responding to and mitigating cyber threats,
– CAJ News