The South African Weather Service has been offline since the weekend after experiencing a cyberattack.

The state-owned weather forecasting agency, which plays a critical role in the aviation and agriculture sectors – among others – said in a post on social media on Monday evening that it’s ICT systems “went down” on Sunday evening due to a “criminal security breach”.

It said its aviation and marine services were impacted along with its website and e-mail system. It said “alternative communication measures” have been put in place.

The Weather Service said the successful cyberattack on Sunday followed a (presumably unsuccessful) “attempt” on Saturday.