President Lazarus Chakwera said this week that Malawi’s immigration system, used for passport printing, was hacked and remains under hacker control. Consequently, the country is unable to issue passports to its citizens.
President Chakwera, in a statement to parliament, confirmed the hacking but did not disclose the hackers’ identity. He added that they are demanding a ransom in exchange for relinquishing control of the system. The ransom amount remains unclear.
Reports from Malawian publications suggest the hacking occurred in mid-January, but no official confirmation surfaced until now.
President Chakwera declared the government’s refusal to pay the ransom:
“As long as I am President, I will not allow the government to pay such an amount.”
According to a Times article from early February, the system was built by a Kenyan company called Techno Brain. A government official however is quoted in the article stating that Techno Brain is no longer involved in the system’s daily operations as they handed over complete control to the Malawian government.
But things may not be as they seem. Another investigative report from earlier this week suggests that Techno Brain itself could have locked the government out of the system. The reason being that government attempted to “hack” the system to bypass software licensing requirements.
Nyasa Times, a prominent news organization, claimed in a report that sources told it of government’s attempt to circumvent Techno Brain’s licensing features:
“They wanted to save costs and implement the promised 14,000-passport price during the 2020 presidential election, but it backfired,” the source said.
Whatever the reason, the president has since instructed the Immigration Department to come up with a workaround within three weeks so Malawians can start getting their passports again.
Image: africanews.com
Share
Home
What’s your take?