South Africa’s Small Business Development Agency (Seda) has fallen victim to ransomware attackers, who have crippled its systems, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

The source told TechCentral earlier this week that the agency’s systems were locked down as a result of the attack, which took place in late April.

The state-owned agency falls under the department of small business development and provides non-financial support to small enterprises and cooperatives. It supports almost 100 Technology Incubation Centres across South Africa, offering start-ups and small businesses with an environment in which to develop and grow.

The agency confirmed the cyberattack to TechCentral on Friday and said it is “exploring all its options, including external experts to assist” it in recovering its affected systems.

“Seda can confirm that it has been a victim of multiple ransomware attacks towards the end of April 2021, which affected its operations,” it said in response to questions.

It said it is continuing to provide services to its stakeholders, though it didn’t explain how it was doing this without access to its systems.

Website down

The Seda website is down and has been down all week – and probably since the attack took place.

“The extent of these attacks on our systems is still under investigation… For security reasons, Seda cannot provide full details at this stage,” it said.

The agency did not respond to TechCentral’s questions about how much the ransomware attackers are seeking to unlock the systems, who the attackers are and when the problem will be fixed. – © 2021 NewsCentral Media