SA has had a terrible few months on the cybersecurity front. Most recently, insurance company Liberty was hacked. It is not clear what the extent of the data breach was, but suggestions are that it is in the region of 40 terabytes of customer data, which is significant. Earlier in June, a website called ViewFines.co.za was hacked, affecting data provided by about a million South Africans. All this pales in comparison to an apparent breach in October 2017 when the identity details of 60-million people were stolen, which would constitute almost every person living in the country. What makes the Liberty case unusual is that the hackers are attempting to extort cash from Liberty itself. Liberty has not released the amount of cash being demanded, but we can take it as read that it is not small.
The company says it seems the data comes from an e-mail server, which suggests this is not a very consequential breach. But significantly, Liberty adds that the e-mails involved include thei...
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