The State Security Agency was reportedly hacked days before the start of the Brics summit in Johannesburg in August.
That’s according to ain Sunday World – and South Africans have heard nothing more about it. In fact, the official policy may be to keep the whole incident under wraps.
The Sunday World article made several damning allegations, including that sensitive and compromising information was leaked. The report said a senior official, Joe Mbhambhu, was made to take the fall for the leak, despite not being responsible for the SSA cyber unit. Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird said the official response to the alleged hack is deeply worrying. “Just because the agency is dealing with state secrets does not mean it can operate in secret,” he said. ”It’s outrageous! While we are still part of a constitutional democracy, we have to act like one, and there are rules and responsibilities.”Bird said the incident represented a “major security breach” and could not just be swept under the carpet.
The SSA has a long history of cloak-and-dagger dealings. Jacob Zuma, president from 2009 to 2018, established the State Security Agency in 2009 as an amalgamation of the National Intelligence Agency, the domestic intelligence service and the South African Secret Service.
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