Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says the Land Bank was the target of a cyberattack in an attempt by criminals to extort more than R5m in cryptocurrency from the entity – but the matter was resolved without a ransom being paid, reports BusinessLIVE.

Responding in writing to a question from MKP MP Adil Nchabeleng, the Minister said the Land Bank in January detected unauthorised activity within parts of its computer systems.

‘The threat actors have requested five bitcoin (of approximately R5.4m currently) as a ransom payment for the return of data and/or the non-publication of data. The Land Bank has taken the decision not to make any ransom payment and confirms that no ransom payment was made,’ he said.

He said preliminary investigations indicated that a third party gained access through a vulnerability on an Internet-facing server and deployed ransomware, which encrypted a portion of the Land Bank server environment as well as multiple laptops.

Godongwana said the Land Bank’s critical enterprise resource planning systems, core banking and customer relationship management systems were not accessed and therefore not compromised.

‘Land Bank is engaging with the Prudential Authority and has been providing updates on restoration and management of the incident.’

He said the Land Bank also notified the State Security Agency last month and made voluntary notifications to various government departments, agencies and critical stakeholders.

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