CS Owalo confirms hacking of eCitizen, explains what happened | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker

Information, Communication and the Digital Economy Cabinet
Secretary Eliud Owalo has confirmed that there was a cyber-attack on the
eCitizen platform.

In an interview on Spice FM, Owalo confirmed the hacking that was
reported this week.

“Oh yes! To me that was not strange because cyber-attacks are predominant world over,” Owalo said.

“There was an attack. We are addressing that, we are not just
coming up with instant remedial measures to address the current situation, we will
build an elaborate risk mitigation framework,” he added.

The ICT CS went on to explain what happened during the latest attack.

“They tried jamming the system by making more than ordinary
requests into the system. It started by slowing down the system and we address
it,” he said.

The CS assured that no data was accessed by the hackers, and
none was lost.

Owalo said such incidents call for the need for continued
digitization of services, and should not hinder the country’s progress in
adopting advanced technological solutions.

Instead, the focus should be on building a robust risk
mitigation framework to ensure sustainable digitalization.

“We cannot stop digitizing our records and digitalizing our
services because we are risk-averse,” said Owalo.

He said the Ministry has
taken stringent security measures to safeguard the platform from any potential
data breaches in the future.

To further bolster the country’s cyber defense capabilities, the
CS revealed that the government has formed a multifaceted team responsible for
proactively monitoring global cyber security trends.

This team will learn from international best practices in cyber
threat mitigation and develop appropriate risk mitigation measures to ensure
the resilience of the nation’s digital infrastructure.

Concerns over a cyber-attack on eCitizen began this week, with
Kenyans saying they were unable to access the platform.

At press time, a number of citizens said they still could not
access e-citizen services.

The platform is a one-stop shop for over 5,000 government
services from ministries, county governments and agencies.