Cape Town - The Western Cape legislature was the victim of a cybersecurity breach on Monday night that rendered its information and communication technologies (ICT) services inaccessible.
The attack meant virtual committee meetings were unable to air on the legislature’s YouTube channel, locking out members of the public who tune in to follow and contribute where possible, to proceedings.
By late Tuesday afternoon it was still not possible to access videos of the morning’s proceedings, but legislature spokesperson Matthys Odendal said the institution was in the process of recovering its systems from backups to a secure environment.
Odendal said: “No legislature business will be affected and the sitting of the House scheduled for Thursday, May 25, will go ahead as planned.”
The Premier and Constitutional committee ordinarily deals with the status of cyber security and broadband roll-out in the province.
Committee chairperson Christopher Fry (DA) said: “We welcome the legislature’s proactive reporting of the matter to SAPS and the State Security Agency, and hope for a thorough investigation to be conducted in due course.”
ANC Chief Whip Pat Lekker, an alternate member of the committee, complained about what she said was a lack of proper information about the cyber attack and said the first she heard of the matter was through media queries.
“This morning we were alerted by the legislature’s ICT about emails, printing services, eFiling and Sage software not being available, but were told nothing about a cyber attack.
She said she was not sure if the cyber attack prevented House committees from using the virtual platform or whether the public had access to the committee meetings.”
Lekker said: “In the 2021/22 financial year, the legislature had budgeted R14.3 million for IT.
“There was an under-expenditure in the same year of nearly R6 million, just under half of the budget, and this is maybe why this attack took place.”
Speaker Daylin Mitchell said they would keep the public updated on the recovery process.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za