At least 17 government websites faced a major security breach on Monday morning by online hackers going by the name ‘KURD ELECTRONIC TEAM’.
The multiple government sites were simultaneously taken offline exposing security lapse within government systems.
Among the websites that were hacked was that of the Treasury-owned, The Integrated Financial Management System(IFMIS).
IFMIS a government online portal where suppliers can make various procurement processes including payments, tendering, requisition, and checking notifications of tender awards.
The IFMIS website was defaced by suspected Indonesian hackers, prompting more question on the Level of preparedness by the Kenyan government against Cyber threats.
The attack has so far exposed weak security systems within the government.
A screenshot shared by a netizen shows the one of the government site ifmis.go.ke bearing a logo with a and claim that the hack was carried out by "KURD ELECTRONIC TEAM" Other Websites such as those of NYS, ICT Authority, JSC, National development Implementation and Technical communication and technical communication were taken in the same manner.
This is one of the worst cyber attacks Kenyan Government has ever faced. Most websites still remain affected or inaccessible to the public.
The cyber attacks are believed to have originated from Indonesia, although Government officials on have declined to comment on the matter.
However the govenment through its ICT team seems to have regained control of the sites and placed them under maintainance.
“Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. If you need to you can always contact us, otherwise we’ll be back online shortly!” announced the government IT team.