The Ingonyama Trust, a statutory body established in 1994 to manage communal land in KwaZulu-Natal for the benefit of Zulu tribes and communities, has been the subject of an attempted ransomware attack, the effects of which are still under investigation. A senior IT expert, who disclosed details of the incident to TechCentral, said NightSpire has…
Data breaches cost South Africa $2.78 million last year. A recently released Interpol report on cyber threats to Africa reveals the “aggressive double-extortion” hacking group LockBit is wreaking havoc in Africa. This, after the notorious group claimed responsibility for a February 2024 attack on South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF). LockBit was also linked…
Cybercriminals and malicious hacker groups that successfully breached the IT systems of South African companies in the past year raised their ransom demands nearly sixfold in the same period. According to The State of Ransomware in South Africa Report 2025 by cybersecurity firm Sophos, the median ransom demanded rose shot up from US$165 000 (R2.9-million) in…
On 18 June, something remarkable happened on the bitcoin blockchain. A series of 2 087 transactions totalling nearly 18.5 bitcoin, worth close to US$2-million (R35.5-million), was sent to a single address: 1FuckiRGCTerroristsNoBiTEXXXaAovLX. The message embedded in that address left little to interpretation. It was a public and permanent insult aimed at Nobitex, Iran’s largest cryptocurrency…
