SA Weather Service aviation website online again after cyber attack

The SA Weather Service (Saws) aviation website is back online after a cyber attack in January paralysed its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.

On Friday the weather service confirmed cybersecurity and ICT experts working to restore the compromised ICT systems brought the aviation website back online for the first time since the attack.

Saws spokesperson Hannelee Doubell said this has enabled the aviation industry to access limited critical services, including products such as international significant weather charts, wind charts, domestic and international flight documentation, research products and radar images via the website. 

Saws CEO Ishaam Abader said stakeholders’ understanding had been the motivation for the entity’s cybersecurity and ICT expert team to work around the clock to reverse the effects of the attack.

“We are in the early stages of recovery. It took other organisations that fell victim to this kind of crime anything from weeks to months or more to recover fully. We hope to be back on our feet sooner,” Abader said.

He said the cyberattack was the latest in a series of similar incidents that reportedly rocked several public and private institutions in the past five years.

Doubell said other products, such as domestic significant weather charts, atmospheric pressure charts and airman’s reports, were undergoing functionality tests and would be available as soon as possible.

She said the service’s aviation weather centre at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg still relied on alternative means to disseminate regular aeronautical weather information and updates to the aviation community.

“Though the main website and hub of weather and climate data is also back online, weather forecasts are not yet accessible on the site. Users will only be able to access severe weather warnings, among other things, on the platform. It must be noted the warnings expire [at] the end of their validity periods and will then disappear from the site,” she said.

She said the marine portal and WeatherSMART app remained offline.

“However, the public and media houses can access daily rainfall, temperatures and severe weather information via social media platforms and email, respectively.

“The restoration of the main and aviation websites comes on the back of several other milestones, including the reopening of the email system and internet service, which were cut off in the wake of the attack in a bid to contain the spread of the malicious software the cybercriminals used during the attack. These were in addition to the reinforcement of cybersecurity measures to better detect and fend off threats that use email and the internet as entry points.”

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