Hackers Demand R400 000 By 5pm From City of Joburg Or Else They Will Release Data. The City of Joburg was announced to have been cyber attacked on Thursday.
The City of Joburg was announced to have been cyber attacked on Thursday. An unknown group of hackers, called the Shadow Kill Hackers, have ruptured the municipality’s network which has resulted in them getting access to the details on its systems. On Thursday, the municipality had closed down the consumer systems for 24 hours.
The City of Joburg has recently brought in international technicians to work on the hacking that has occurred. The municipality will reportedly not surrender to the 4.0 bitcoins ransom amount, which is about R400 000, requested by the Shadow Kill Hackers. The cyber attackers have given the municipality until 5pm on Monday to provide the ransom.
The hackers stated that if the City of Joburg does not provide the ransom, the hackers would disclose jeopardising City of Joburg data on the internet. Funzela Ngobeni, the City of Joburg’s finance MMC, stated that specialists are working on it. He states that the attack had an effect on the municipality’s capability to deliver service to the community members. He was optimistic that 80% of the municipality’s services would be restored when they close on Monday.
Funzela Ngobeni says,“I can confirm that the city will not concede to their demands. We are confident we will be able to restore our systems to full functionality. We have made significant progress.” The head of IT in the City of Joburg, Cyril Baloyi, says they know where attack is originated. However, the municipality is not sure as to whether it would file criminal charges, the Hawks have looking into the issue along with other officials, according to the city. Cyril Baloyi says, “We are fully aware we do have loopholes in the City of Joburg. We do have already a plan that was approved on October 3, but unfortunately we were hit before our plans could be implemented.”
by Alexandra Ramaite
