Tracker SA's systems hacked

Stolen vehicle recovery company Tracker on Sunday announced that it had become “a victim of a cybercrime in the form of a ransomware attack.” 

The hack attack “encrypted information on some systems”, CEO Wayne de Nobrega said in a statement.

Initially, Tracker shared on its social feed on Saturday that it was experiencing “technical difficulties” on its systems.

On detecting the malware, it immediately took its systems offline as a temporary precautionary measure, stopping the spread to other areas of its system, the company said on Sunday.

De Nobrega said Tracker also deployed its IT and cyber security teams.

In addition, he said the company “is working closely with global and local third party experts to resolve the matter”.

By Sunday morning, De Nobrega said, “good progress had already been made to recover and restore some of the affected systems”.

“At this time, there is no indication that any customer data has been compromised or accessed.”

Tracker said it has been able to continue with its recovery and car-tracking operations. Customers who need emergency services can contact their call centre on  0800 13 23 23.

Last year, SA experienced the single longest running cyberattack campaign monitored around the world between July and September by e-mail and data security company Mimecast.

“It is almost certain that an organised criminal group or APT [Advanced Persistent Threat group] carried out these campaigns, given the resources and effort it would require to sustain this level of determined attack over this lengthy period,” the firm said in its quarterly Threat Intelligence Report in November.

The financial sector suffered the brunt of the attacks.

The SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) confirmed in October that the banking industry had been hit by a wave of ransom-driven distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

The City of Johannesburg also reported a breach of its network around the same time, which shut down its website and all e-services. The city was sent a bitcoin ransom note.