Lukas van der Merwe, Specialist Sales Executive: Security at T-Systems South Africa, joined Benito Vergotine in studio to discuss the recent ransomware attacks and cyber security.

Be careful what you post online, listen to the conversation with Lukas here: How safe is your info online?

In a highly publicised event, City Power confirmed that it is the latest victim of ransomware attacks, where their database, applications and network has been encrypted, rendering its customers’ unable to purchase electricity units for pre-paid meters. Targeting public sector organisations seems to be a trend if we consider the hit on the UK NHS in 2017 and more recently, Baltimore, the Georgia courts system and Lake City to name a few in the United States.  South Africa is no newcomer to this type of attack as we saw a number of local events in 2018 such as the notorious hacker that completely shut down government website cybersecurityhub.gov.za, making it completely inaccessible as well as the attack on the  City of Tshwane’s website.