Hackers who hacked Passport Issuing System at the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services are demanding money from Malawi Government.
Malawi President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera disclosed the development on Wednesday in Parliament when he was responding to questions from Members of Parliament.
According to Chakwera, the hackers are demanding undisclosed amount of money (ransom) from the government.
But Chakwera vowed that as long as he is the president of this country, he will not allow the government to pay such an amount.
“I want to send a strong message to the hackers that we will not pay a ransom. We have launched an investigation to track you and when we track you there will be no mercy,” warned Chakwera.
Meanwhile, according to Chakwera, the department has taken a decisive step to regain control of the system.
He then commanded the Department of Immigration to find a temporal relief within three weeks, while they are working on tightening security measures.
A month ago, it was reported that the Department of Immigration had been experiencing network problems, prompting it to halt the provision of some of its services.
The department later issued a statement in which it indicated that it had suspended its operations to pave the way for maintenance works on the system.
But it has emerged that the system was hacked some three weeks ago and that the department has been engaging some information technology (IT) experts to restore it.
