SABC hacked
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has confirmed that it was the victim of a business email compromise that affected some of its staff’s email accounts.
The state-owned broadcaster’s head of communications, Mmoni Ngubane, told MyBroadband that its IT team has secured the compromised mailboxes.
“The SABC is aware of a recent email compromise affecting a small number of employee accounts,” she said.
“Our IT Security team responded immediately, securing the affected mailboxes and containing the incident. Preliminary investigations indicate that the matter was isolated and quickly resolved.”
Ngubane said the SABC continues strengthening its cybersecurity measures and educating staff on cybersecurity.
“We encourage vigilance against suspicious emails to our staff and external partners,” she added.
MyBroadband contacted the SABC about the business email compromise after two separate reports of suspicious emails from its domain, several days apart.
The first email arrived on Monday, 28 July 2025, from the email address of an SABC manager for stakeholder relationships and partnerships.
A second email arrived in our inbox on Thursday, 31 July 2025, this time from a senior executive at the public broadcaster.
Cybercriminal groups are increasingly targeting South African state-owned entities, partially state-owned entities, and government departments.
In 2025 alone, South African Airways and the National Treasury confirmed that they suffered cybersecurity incidents.
The National Treasury discovered malware on its Infrastructure Reporting Model website in July 2025. It indicated that the issue was related to recent Microsoft SharePoint platform attacks.
“Considering recent media reports regarding security incidents affecting Microsoft’s platforms in the US, Treasury has requested Microsoft’s assistance,” it said.
The entity said it had asked Microsoft to assist with identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities within its ICT environment.
It also emphasised that, while it found malware within the Infrastructure Reporting Model system, its other systems and websites continued operating without disruption.
Partially state-owned South African Airways confirmed that it had suffered a “significant cyber incident” that began on Saturday, 3 May 2025, and disrupted access to its website and mobile application.
The airline immediately activated its disaster management and business continuity protocols, which helped it successfully contain the incident and minimise disruption to core flight operations.
South Africa under attack
The Communications Risk Information Centre (Comric) 2025 Telecommunications Sector Report revealed that government infrastructure faces roughly 3,312 cyberattacks weekly.
It also revealed that cybercrime costs South Africa about R2.2 billion each year, and highlighted the impact of cybercrime on the country’s private sector.
Comric said the average cost of a data breach reached nearly R50 million in 2023, and according to its data, ransomware is the most common form of attack.
Ransomware attacks typically involve attackers encrypting the victim’s data and systems and extorting them to pay for the decryption key.
Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, recently stressed that cybercrime incidents, particularly ransomware attacks, were rising in South Africa.
According to Comric’s report, roughly 78% of businesses in South Africa experienced at least one cybersecurity incident in 2023.
Other common attacks besides ransomware include phishing scams, business email compromise, malware and exploits, and synthetic identity fraud.
It explained that phishing scams, which see criminals attempt to coerce targets into revealing sensitive information through social engineering, cost South Africa R200 million in 2023.
The other forms of attack have seen a meteoric rise in South Africa, with attacks increasing by around 153%.
Comric surveyed South African companies to compile its report, and 66% of respondents prioritised mitigating cyber risks.
The organisation believes that, given the increase in demand for cybersecurity solutions, the domestic cybersecurity market is expected to reach a projected revenue of R73 billion by 2030.
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