How To Report Alleged Sudanese Hackers- Govt To Kenyans

The government, through the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy on Thursday, July 27 provided a means Kenyans can use to report cyber attacks in the wake of an alleged wave of cyber attacks by a hacker group from Sudan.

In a statement, ICT Cabinet Secretary (CS) Eliud Owalo assured Kenyans that the government will continue its cyber-surveillance efforts, further encouraging the public and private sectors to heighten their cyber-surveillance efforts so that jointly, Kenya's Cyberspace is secured.

The CS encouraged Kenyans to report all cyber security cases to The National Kenya Computer Incident Response Coordination Centre through email, the phone numbers provided and an online portal.

"We want to assure Kenyans that the government has put in place remedial measures to address the current challenge plus a long-term risk mitigation framework to ensure sustainable data privacy and data security.

"To the Public, we encourage reporting of all cyber security incidents to The National Kenya Computer Incident Response Coordination Centre via: [email protected] or hotlines +254703042700, +254 730-172700 or through the Incident reporting portal www.ke-cirt.go.ke(http://ke-cirt.go.ke)," the statement read in part.

The CS acknowledged that there have been attempted cyber attacks targeting both the government and private sectors over the past week, though he indicated that they were unsuccessful.

"The e-Citizen Portal is among the targets of these unsuccessful attacks. The attack on the e-Citizen platform entailed an unsuccessful attempt to overload the system through extraordinary requests, with the intention of clogging it, but our technical teams blocked the source IP address where the requests were emanating from.

"For clarity, both the privacy and security of data were not compromised. The system was not hacked," he clarified.

Owalo further noted that as a consequence of the attack efforts, however, the system has been experiencing intermittent interruptions that are affecting the normal speed of accessing services on the platform.

He expressed that the attempts have, however, been rebuffed by the security systems and applications in place and that the government was keen on shortly reverting to optimal utilization levels.

"The relevant Government of Kenya agencies are on high alert and have enhanced the security of the e-Citizen portal and all Government Services Sites. All Systems and Portals under the control of the Government of Kenya are safe," the CS assured.

The statement came hours after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported challenges in electronic visa applications and processing in the e-Citizen platform, the latest sector to be affected by the purported attacks from the Sudan hacker group.

Foreign Affairs Ministry PS Korir Sing'Oei indicated technical issues though it comes after ICT CS, Eliud Owalo assured Kenyans that the government was working to address the hacking incidents affecting government websites.

"The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Kenyan presents its compliments to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations in Kenya and has the honour to inform that there is currently a challenge in the Government e-citizen platform, which is impacting the processing of e-visa.

"Therefore, travellers will be issued a visa upon arrival at all entry points to Kenya. The Government also wishes to advise all airlines to onboard travellers destined for Kenya," Sing'Oei stated in part.

The e-Visa application is hosted on the e-Citizen platform, which was among the government websites allegedly under attack by the group, Anonymous Sudan.

Statements earlier posted by Sudan Annonymous claimed that the move to target the Kenyan websites was motivated by their protest against Kenya's alleged interference with the country's affairs, though the group did not substantiate how Kenya was meddling with the affairs of Sudan.