MBABANE – A third-party client of the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP) is suspected of providing a gateway into the National Data Centre during the recent cyber incident.
Sources close to the matter claim that those responsible for the incident used the third party to gain access to the national data centre, resulting in several files being corrupted.
Preliminary findings have reportedly established that no data was stolen, although several files were allegedly corrupted during the incident. National Commissioner of Police Vusi Manoma Masango said the police had engaged international partners, including Interpol, for technical assistance.
“Currently, we are not involved but we have engaged our partners, including Interpol. We shall start our investigation immediately after the consultant procured by RSTP and the ministry (Information, Communications and Technology (ICT)) have delivered a report on what happened,” Masango said.
He said the police and their partners would take action once the report had been submitted. Masango said the police were closely following developments while the consultant continued with the assessment.
Interpol has previously assisted the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) in investigations involving online criminal networks, including an international online syndicate whose members were arrested in several countries.
The incident has disrupted at least 12 government digital services and platforms hosted or supported by the National Data Centre.
RSTP confirmed that the National Data Centre had been affected by an incident and said its engineers, together with experts from external service providers, were working around the clock to restore the affected services.
RSTP Communications Manager Senzo Malaza previously said the organisation had brought in external expertise to assist its engineers.
“The Royal Science and Technology Park can confirm that we have had an incident that affects our National Data Centre which we are currently dealing with,” Malaza said.
He said RSTP was also working to prevent similar incidents in future while continuing to provide information technology services to the public and private sectors.
“We continue to work with all relevant entities as we address this incident in a holistic manner,” he said.
Malaza apologised to RSTP customers for the disruption and assured them that the organisation remained committed to providing quality services while maintaining a secure environment.
He stressed that the incident had not brought all government services to a standstill. “While some government services were affected, we can assure the public that it is not all of them that were affected which means the public can still get some services from government without any challenges,” Malaza said.
The confirmation followed questions sent to RSTP after allegations circulated on social media that the National Data Centre had been hacked and that hackers were demanding a ransom. RSTP is a parastatal under the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT).
The ministry separately confirmed that several government web-based services and digital platforms were experiencing outages.
The affected services included selected services available through the Government in Your Hand (GIYH) application, including services provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
Other affected services included the Ministry of Public Works Road Transport Permit, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Government Scholarship Application, the Ministry of Tinkhundla Regional Development Fund Application and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Elderly Grant Application and Payment.
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