Kenya has confirmed a cyberattack on a digital platform that offers government services and holds crucial personal data of citizens.
The eCitizen portal is responsible for registration of personal data including identity cards, passports, birth certificates, driving licenses, residency permits and registration of new businesses.
Hackers attempted to jam it through an overload of data requests, ICT Minister Eliud Owalo told a morning radio show on Thursday.
No data was accessed or lost as the system was not hacked, and all systems and portals under the control of the government were safe, he said in a subsequent statement.
Jamming system
There were also unsuccessful attempts targeting the private sector, it added.
“To me that is not strange because cyberattack is predominant the world over. We cannot stop digitising our records and digitalising our services because we are risk averse,”Mr Owalo told the show.
He added: “They tried jamming the system by making more than ordinary requests into the system. It started slowing down the system and then we addressed it.”
The minister said remedial measures had been taken to deal with the situation and the government “will build an elaborate risk mitigation measures for the purposes of for sustainable digitalization.”
Users of the eCitizen portal have been reporting a downtime throughout the week.
Transaction downtime
On Thursday, downtimes were also reported on mobile money transfer applications and internet banking, although it's unclear if they were related to the cyberattack on the government platform.
Kenya is among the few African with laws on data security and data privacy.
