District known as the cradle of democracy whose government has the worst cybersecurity in South Africa
The Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape is allegedly running a server with 353 known security vulnerabilities, 94 of which are “critical” and easily exploitable by cybercriminals.
It is the worst-performing government network in the country in terms of cybersecurity, a researcher recently discovered.
Amathole, which means “the calves of the Drakensberg” in isiXhosa, is a municipal district in the central coastal portion of the Eastern Cape province.
The name is a reference to the pastoral life of the Xhosa communities that long settled in the area, whose cattle would graze in the nearby foothills.
It is also known as the “cradle of South Africa’s democracy” and is home to Fort Hare University and Lovedale College.
These are institutions that produced leaders such as former President Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, the father of the Black Consciousness movement, and former President Thabo Mbeki.
It has a population of over 1.66 million, and surrounds the Buffalo City Municipality, which includes KuGompo City (East London). The district enjoys proximity to the Sunshine Coast.
Popular named beaches in the district include Nahoon Beach, Gonubie Beach, and Orient Beach, which offer clean sand, clear water, and low daily visitor numbers.
There are also several game reserves in the province, including Camdeboo National Park, Mpongo Private Game Reserve, Inkwenkwezi Private Game Reserve, and Mountain Zebra National Park.
It is one of the poorest of South Africa’s municipalities, with a severe lack of basic services for large portions of the population, where a leading cause of child mortality is diarrheal diseases.
The district comprises large parts of the former Ciskei and Transkei homeland areas, and has six local municipalities under its jurisdiction.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) said in 2020 that the district was a niche area for rural-urban agriculture markets.
It also noted that although the area is prone to drought, it has potential for grazing and forestry, with arable land for crop farming.
| Hosts | Total CVEs | Critical | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| admcitizen.amathole.gov.za | 353 | 94 | Amathole District Municipality (Azure) |
| witzenberg.gov.za | 347 | 94 | Witzenberg Municipality |
| mail.tclm.gov.za | 268 | 60 | Thaba Chweu Local Municipality |
| dalrrd.gov.za | 152 | 37 | DALRRD / Agric. Res. Council |
| nda.gov.za | 153 | 23 | National Development Agency |
| midvaal.gov.za | 151 | 19 | Midvaal Municipality (Vodacom) |
Amathole’s systems are highly vulnerable to “ghosts”
Cybersecurity researcher Joel Cedras revealed his findings from an investigation into widespread cybersecurity vulnerabilities in government in a report on Ground Up earlier in June.
He said that the Amathole District Municipality’s particular server was exposed to 75% of all critical vulnerabilities across all .gov.za domains.
Cedras said the server had the most total Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) across the government’s Internet.
CVEs provide a standardised way for cybersecurity professionals to refer to publicly known vulnerabilities in software and hardware, making them easier to address.
CVEs are ranked by severity and may also be classified according to whether threat actors are actively exploiting them.
The only municipality that matched Amathole in critical vulnerabilities on its domain was the Witzenberg Municipality in the Western Cape. However, Amathole still had it beat in sheer numbers.
According to the online tool Cedras used to identify vulnerable government domains, Shodan, the most critical CVE affecting Amathole is CVE-2015-0235.
This is known as the “GHOST Vulnerability” and is ranked 10/10 in terms of severity. An attacker who exploits this issue can gain complete control over the system.
The most damning part of his discovery was that a patch for the vulnerability is available. In fact, the fix was released in January 2015.
Cedras told MyBroadband that the risk posed by these poorly secured government networks is that they host residents’ private information.
“There is a serious risk of leaking of sensitive data, which can facilitate fraud and other crimes against citizens,” he said.
“A ransomware attack could also shut down multiple government services at once, and could lead to citizens not being able to access important services.”
More pictures of the Amathole District Municipality
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