All Gov’t systems are safe, cyber attacks were unsuccessful - ICT CS Owalo now says

ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has allayed fears that government platforms, among them the e-Citizen portal, were hacked this week and sensitive information accessed by cyber criminals.

CS Owalo says that hackers attempted to weigh down the e-Citizen portal by making unusual requests, but the security systems in place thwarted the attempts.

"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," Owalo said in a statement to newsrooms on Thursday evening.

"As a consequence of the attack efforts, the system has been experiencing intermittent interruptions that are affecting the normal speed in accessing services on the platform. These attempts have, however, been rebuffed by the security systems and applications in place."

While noting that the platform will resume normal operations soon, CS Owalo added that the government has augmented its cyber-security contingencies in anticipation of any similar future attacks.

"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," he said.

"The Government will continue its cyber surveillance efforts and encourages the Public and Private sectors to heighten their cyber surveillance efforts so that jointly, we secure Kenya's Cyberspace.”

The CS added that the State is working on a long-term risk mitigation framework to deter such attacks and protect the data of Kenyans.

"To the Public, we encourage reporting of all cyber security incidents to The National Kenya Computer Incident Response Coordination Centre," he said.

The statement comes after CS Owalo, during an earlier interview on Spice FM, seemingly confirmed that there was indeed a cyber attack on the eCitizen platform.

“There was an attack. We are addressing that, we are not just coming up with instant remedial measures to address the current situation, we will build an elaborate risk mitigation framework,” he stated then.