International Trade Administration Commission Itac commissioner Ayabonga Cawe told parliament the cybersecurity compromise the trade body suffered last year, announced in April, did not result in mass infiltration of customer data.
Briefing the portfolio committee on trade, industry and competition in Cape Town on Wednesday, Cawe said while many criticised Itac for only announcing the attack months after it occurred, Itac had acted promptly and appropriately.
Our IT environment operates certain of our organisational processes in a manual way and some of them are a sort of technical platform. Those are backed up with on-site server infrastructure. That server infrastructure is what, towards the end of last year as we have now come to understand, was breached and it was what is called a ransomware attack.
Ayabonga CaweRansomware is malicious software designed to block a users access to an information system until money is paid to allow access again.
When Itac management became aware of the attack they decided they would not pay a ransom to the malefactors. Itac contacted the police about the attack before commissioning a forensic probe into the incident.
