OPM rejects claims Govt servers were hacked

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has rejected claims that government servers were hacked last week as reported in local media and speculated on social media platforms.

In a media statement this week, OPM spokesperson Rhingo Mutambo said some government websites were down on 8 and 9 October 2020 as unexpected technical problems were experienced.

“However, the reason why the government portals were offline is simple and it is not related to the Kavango Delta matter. One of the operational government web servers experienced an unexpected technical problem after a software upgrade late on 7 October 2020, which resulted in it failing to boot properly,” Mutambo said.

He added this is a server that hosts government websites that were then inaccessible for two days and the problem was duly investigated and resolved.

Media reports had it that a hacking group claimed to have taken down the Namibian government’s domain, reportedly in connection with the case of Canadian company Recon Africa having been granted permission to drill in the Okavango Delta.

Speaking to Nampa on Tuesday, Mutambo said out of 25 ministries, the websites of 15 were affected.

Erastus Amutenya, deputy executive director in the Department of Public Service Information Technology Management in the OPM was also quoted in the statement as saying their technical team has been working around the clock to rectify the problem and transfer government portals’ content onto an equally secured server to ensure continuity.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this problem. Our portals are up and running again. All websites are now accessible and intact. Nothing has been lost or destroyed,” he said, adding that it is important the public is informed the technical problem did not occur as a result of the malicious actions of third parties. - Nampa