Hackers Demand Ransom After Stealing Johannesburg's Data

Johannesburg is a world class city on a booming continent and a pan-african financial powerhouse.  It is also a repeat victim of hackers who at least twice in three months have shut down important city services and networks. 

In a targeted ransomware attack, hackers first took down the city's computer network on October 24th, stealing data from the city and threatening to release it unless the ransom payment is made. The city's IT team was still trying to restore critical systems days after the event, since its call center, website and e-services platform were all taken down in the attack. 

The group behind the attack, going by the name of Shadow Kill Hackers, is demanding a payment of four Bitcoin ($39,457) to prevent the release the data it has stolen. The group claims the data includes passwords and other sensitive data, such as finance and personal population information. Attempts were made to track down the hackers through details they gave on how to pay the bitcoins.

According to the ransom note, if the payment is made the data will be destroyed and the group will provide details to Johannesburg’s information technology staff on how it managed to steal the data, plus related security issues on the city’s network. 

The attack on South Africa’s main financial center, accounting for 16% of the country’s gross domestic product, has also delivered a noticeable blow to the country’s economy. 

This isn’t the first attack targeting Johannesburg. City Power, the city-owned electricity provider, was crippled by ransomware in July 2019. Two apparently separate groups of hackers are threatening to close down the finance sector and local government at a time when South Africans would be paying municipal bills and gaining access their bank accounts.

The banking industry was hit recently by a wave of DDOS attacks and this the attackers claimed in their ransoms was a small sample of what was to come. 

“This small attack was big and guys are busy installing systems to mitigate the coming attack,” said local cybersecurity expert Jacques van Heerden, who has knowledge of the cyberattack. 

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