President Lazarus Chakwera said this week that Malawi’s immigration system, used for passport printing, was hacked and remains under hacker control. Consequently, the country is unable to issue passports to its citizens.
President Chakwera, in a statement to parliament, confirmed the hacking but did not disclose the hackers’ identity. He added that they are demanding a ransom in exchange for relinquishing control of the system. The ransom amount remains unclear.
Reports from Malawian publications suggest the hacking occurred in mid-January, but no official confirmation surfaced until now.
President Chakwera declared the government’s refusal to pay the ransom:
“As long as I am President, I will not allow the government to pay such an amount.”
According to a Times article from early February, the system was built by a Kenyan company called Techno Brain. A government official however is quoted in the article stating that Techno Brain is no longer involved in the system’s daily operations as they handed over complete control to the Malawian government.
But things may not be as they seem. Another investigative report from earlier this week suggests that Techno Brain itself could have locked the government out of the system. The reason being that government attempted to “hack” the system to bypass software licensing requirements.
Nyasa Times, a prominent news organization, claimed in a report that sources told it of government’s attempt to circumvent Techno Brain’s licensing features:
“They wanted to save costs and implement the promised 14,000-passport price during the 2020 presidential election, but it backfired,” the source said.
Whatever the reason, the president has since instructed the Immigration Department to come up with a workaround within three weeks so Malawians can start getting their passports again.
Image: africanews.com
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Are you guys seriously going to tell me that you missed this article?
https://techcabal.com/2024/02/21/y-combinators-third-african-pick-is-ocular-ai/
Yes we missed it….google’s algorithm kind of tells you what you want to hear, not necessarily everything…so wats the story about?..I ain’t got data @ the moment
From the artist formerly known as Bard:
This is an article about a Zimbabwean AI startup called Ocular AI. The company was founded by Michael Moyo and Louis Murerwa, who previously worked at Microsoft and Google. Ocular AI helps teams search, visualize, and automate workflows across different apps. The startup was accepted into Y Combinator’s winter 2024 batch. This is the first time a Zimbabwean company has been accepted into Y Combinator. Ocular AI will now have access to Y Combinator’s mentorship, funding, and network.
Not a Zimbabwean company, but Zimbabwean founded company. Somewhere out there will be an article also calling it a Zambian company, because the other founder is Zambian.
👍🏾 nice!
We really could make software at home, and please respect the developers they work hard. You wouldn’t go to MacDonalds and order a free meal, so why not pay them. It’s 1s and 0s, but it’s still a form of property protected by rights. Flouting property rights makes countries fail…
To the highly ranked officials in Malawi if they are willing to retrieve some copies and documents from the hackers I can help but we then supposed to sit down and agree on terms and conditions of payment before I start the Job.
Ndibushiri wabayo,monga boma sirikuona?
Chaka chino wina alikulila 🤣🤣🤣
Guys I want to highlight the extent of the demise of Telecel Zimbabwe and its website has not appeared on google for more than a month and checked on website planet to confirm all those times and unfortunately it is no longer available and for a company of Telecel Zimbabwe’s stature it only goes to show the dwindling of the company.Imagine the thirg biggest MNO in Zimbabwe is not available on the internet only on twitter and Facebook. We are talking of a company that once commanded over 30% of all network and Voice subscribers. Most of the shops are now closing and dilapidated.i saw imwe in joina yakutotengeswa hembe and still contains the telecel branding.#save telecel zimbabwe. I am David Junior Mhambare and you can reference me if you write such a story and I am a web developer and IOT fanatic. Mismanagemt and i believe it can still turnaround like Telone when Chipo Mtasa entered the fold
I was at the NGTelecoms summit in Sandton. The Telecel CEO was to give a presentation on 5G. If you have to be coached minutes before such an event that investors and shareholders have a stake, perhaps you can help the board with legal matters instead. These companies need someone who understands what’s going on. It was a cringe moment, so I’m not surprised.
Holy fatcooks Fat-Man! I totally missed the byline! When did Limbikani come back?!
I thought this was an article from years back… Kabweza uripo
Try your best guys to recover whatever was lost, we need passports.
Hopefully they will soon come up with a reasonable solution for this connections game
I was at the NGTelecoms summit in Sandton. The Telecel CEO was to give a presentation on 5G. If you have to be coached minutes before such an event that investors and shareholders have a stake, perhaps you can help the board with legal matters instead. These companies need someone who understands what’s going on. It was a cringe moment, so I’m not surprised.