CIPC system shutdown 'not due to data breach'

The CIPC has denied it shut down its systems overnight on Wednesday because of last week’s data breach.

Intellectual Property Commission spokesman has denied that it shut down its systems overnight on Wednesday because of last week’s breach in which sensitive customer and employee data was compromised.

The CIPC, which falls under the department of trade, industry & competition, is responsible for maintaining the country’s business and intellectual property registrations. As such, it is a key cog in South Africa’s economy.“This was routine maintenance and in no way related to last week’s data breach,” Lungile Dukwana, chief of strategy at the CIPC, told TechCentral on Thursday.

This is called “neutralisation”, said Anna Collard, security expert at KnowBe4 Africa. “From a psychological perspective, criminals still think they are good people, so they use neutralisation arguments to say the victim is at fault, in this case highlighting the CIPC’s incompetence, to justify their actions.”

“South Africans are very quick to blame the victim. Yes, they made mistakes. But these hackers are still the criminals. This could have happened to anyone, so the question is what can be done going forward? We are always quick to blame government for being incompetent, but we do have to work together to solve this problem,” she said.A big problem, particularly in government, is a lack of cybersecurity skills, compromising the ability to fend off attackers.

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