SAWS fights to restore systems after crippling cyber attack
Two weeks ago, a breach at the South African Weather Service took down the service's information and communication technology systems, disrupting the delivery of critical meteorological services.
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JOHANNESBURG - The South African Weather Service (SAWS) is fighting to restore its systems after a crippling cyber attack two weeks ago.
The breach has taken down the services information and communication technology systems, disrupting the delivery of critical meteorological services.
Despite the challenges, the weather service said it's managing to provide essential services such as aviation, marine and severe weather updates using alternative methods
CEO Ishaam Abader said a team of cybersecurity specialists and ICT technicians were working to restore its systems.
"The systems which are the bedrock of the entity's weather climate and administrative operations remain in an unscheduled downtime following a data breach that the organisation suffered a fourth night ago.
"The expert team of cybersecurity specialists and our ICT technicians remain onsite to flush out the virus used by the cyber criminals to encrypt our systems and to recover our data from the backup before beginning to reopen our network," said the entity's spokesperson Oupa Segalwe.