Those who hacked our system won't get a cent from us - City of Joburg

Technology Theft/ Hacker

Johannesburg - The City of Joburg says people who hacked their system and then demanded a ransom won't get a cent.

Speaking to The Star on Friday morning, the City's Happy Zondi said hackers accessed their system illegally which means that they are unable to assist customers due to the security breach.

As a precautionary measure, the City shut down several customer facing systems including the city's website, e-services and the billing system.

While Zondi could not say when the hackers hit, she confirmed that they tried to extort money from them after illegally accessing the system.

"I don't have details yet as to how much they demanded but they won't get a cent. Our engineers are busy figuring out what the problem is. Our network has been affected," she said.

She said as a result of the hacking, they wont be able to assist people who want to query their bills or query their water and electricity consumption.

"I don't think it would be useful for our customers to come to us for help today and we apologise for that," she said. This latest incident comes three months after many Joburgers were left freezing in the cold and not able to buy electricity on the City Power website after it was hit by a virus.

The ransomware virus encrypted all their database, applications and network. 

Ransomware as a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid.