The recent move to remote work has made this threat of cyber-attacks all the more pronounced, with data showing as much as a 238% increase in cyber-attacks targeting certain sectors since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A South African construction company Stefanutti Stocks has been hit by a cyber attack and this follows after another major South African cybersecurity incident in which the personal details of millions of South Africans were leaked online.
The company informed shareholders of the security breach in a statement published on Wednesday 1 September 2020. The attack occurred on 31 August 2020, and the company did not state the extent to which its systems had been compromised.
The company said;
“Stefanutti Stocks informs its stakeholders that in the early hours of 31 August 2020 it uncovered a cyberattack on its IT systems. External IT forensic experts have been engaged to work with Stefanutti Stocks’ experts to investigate the incident.”
All IT systems in the company have been temporarily shut down while the attack is investigated and the system is made secure.
“As a result, all IT systems have been shut down in order to remediate. This will cause a temporary disruption to certain central administrative functions. Notwithstanding this, site operations will continue unaffected.”
Stefanutti Stocks said that the attack will also be reported to the relevant law enforcement agencies, and it told its shareholders that it takes any threat to its IT systems extremely seriously and that the incident is being fully investigated. The company also assured that any material developments will be communicated.
This follows after another major South African cybersecurity incident in which the personal details of millions of South Africans were leaked online.
The breach at Experian, a major South African credit bureau, exposed the personal banking-related information of as many as 24 million South Africans and nearly 793,749 businesses.
Following the report, Experian issued a statement to clarify the nature of the incident, saying it was not hacked and that no financial information was compromised.
Experian discovered the alleged fraud in July 2020 and disclosed the matter to South Africa’s information regulator and the public in August. Experian Africa CEO Ferdie Pieterse has also stated that they are pursuing criminal charges against the alleged fraudster.
