A group calling themselves “Shadow Kill Hackers” has infiltrated the City of Joburg and its online services.
In a tweet, the City said it had detected a network breach “which resulted in an unauthorised access to our information systems”.
The serious data breach was reported on Thursday evening. The group – who identified themselves as the Shadow Kill Hackers – left a note on the Twitter page, claiming to “have control of everything” in Johannesburg.
“All your servers and data have been hacked. We have dozens of back doors inside your city. We have control of everything in your city. We also compromised all passwords and sensitive data such as finance and personal population information.”
The group made their demands clear to the City of Joburg. They are asking for a ransom of four bitcoins. Should they not receive payment by 17:00 on Monday 28 October, they will upload the sensitive information they’ve purportedly stolen onto the internet – most likely onto the “dark web”.
The total they are demanding equates to roughly R437 500, or nearly $30 000. Shadow Kill Hackers are also claiming to have access to details held by South Africa’s major banks – jeopardising the security of residents in Gauteng.
Several customer-facing systems, including the City’s website, e-services; billing system, has been shut down as a precautionary measure.
