The South African Weather Service (SAWS) anticipates that its website and other IT systems will be fully restored within the next week, nearly a month after falling victim to a ransomware attack.
The SAWS website, which is a vital resource for the general public seeking weather updates, as well as for sectors such as aviation, agriculture, and marine services, went offline on Sunday, January 26, following a suspected cyberattack. Subsequently, the Weather Service confirmed that it had indeed been targeted by a ransomware attack.
During the incident, South African Weather Service received a “generic ransom note,” reportedly from a cybercrime group known as RansomHub, which is believed to have ties to Russian hackers. However, SAWS CEO Ishaam Abader stated in an interview with the 24-hour news channel eNCA that no specific ransom amount has been demanded by the attackers.
In the absence of its website, SAWS has turned to its social media platforms, including its account on X, to disseminate weather forecasts and provide aviation-related weather information. Abader reassured the public that the organization still has access to high-performance computing facilities, which allow them to continue running their weather prediction models despite the website outage.
Abader noted that significant efforts are being made to restore the website, which is particularly critical for the aviation sector. He expressed optimism, stating that SAWS’s technical experts expect the website to be back online by later this week or early next week. “We are in the process of bringing our website up again, which is critical for the aviation sector, and a lot of work has gone into that,” he explained.
