{"id":608618,"date":"2025-08-27T17:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=608618"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:27:20","slug":"netstar-app-downtime-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/608618-netstar-app-downtime-explained.html","title":{"rendered":"Netstar app downtime explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Netstar customers have reported that the vehicle tracking service\u2019s mobile app has not worked since the afternoon of Tuesday, 26 August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after the company, which is owned by JSE-listed Altron, confirmed on Friday that it suffered a ransomware attack earlier this year, creating concern that the two issues are linked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Netstar has told MyBroadband that the outage of its apps was unrelated to the data breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNetstar confirms that it experienced intermittent issues with its CRM platform. This is not in any way related to the cybersecurity incident reported on last week,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers trying to access their Netstar services said they could log in, but nothing else loaded. \u201cThe outages were communicated on normal channels when it occurred,\u201d Netstar stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, a group called INC Ransom claimed responsibility for an attack on Netstar\u2019s systems and published a cache of data on its dark web leak site, stating that they had exfiltrated 505GB of data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examining a sample of the files uploaded indicated that the attackers stole documents exposing the private information of some customers, as well as data such as administrative passwords, invoices, and source code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One security researcher who looked at the data notified MyBroadband that several of Netstar\u2019s database passwords had been exposed in one of the leaked files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband passed the information on to Netstar, and we were told that the company was attending to the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netstar is one of South Africa\u2019s largest vehicle tracking companies. In its latest annual results<\/a>, Altron reported that Netstar\u2019s subscriber base increased 16% year-over-year to surpass two million users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron reported that Netstar processed over 226 billion data points between 1 March 2024 and 28 February 2025, and has scaled its fleet to over 33,000 assets globally.  It also reported EBITDA of R935 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netstar’s statement about the data breach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
On Wednesday, 27 August 2025, Netstar customers reported that the vehicle tracking service’s apps were not working.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following MyBroadband\u2019s report about the data breach, Netstar issued a statement saying that the attack occurred a month prior. Its statement described falling prey to a ransomware attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn 23 June 2025, Netstar experienced a cybersecurity incident that temporarily impacted some of its operations,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough a small subset of on-premise servers were encrypted, Netstar was well prepared and able to respond immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netstar said that its internal teams, supported by external cybersecurity experts, swiftly contained the incident and restored core operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netstar revealed that a small subset of on-premise servers were encrypted, but said it was well prepared and able to respond immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe investigation into the June incident revealed no evidence that customer data was accessed or removed from Netstar systems,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNetstar reported the incident to the Information Regulator at the time, and affected parties were notified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it was unwilling to negotiate with INC Ransom. \u201cTherefore, data allegedly from Netstar was published on a site with limited access late yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a hit counter on INC Ransom\u2019s website, the Netstar leak had been viewed 2,200 times by 17:30 on Friday, 27 August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netstar said it was aware of INC Ransom\u2019s claims that it had stolen data from its system and was busy investigating in collaboration with leading third-party forensic experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShould new facts emerge, affected parties will be notified and the regulator will be updated without delay,\u201d Netstar assured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Netstar customers reported that the vehicle tracking service’s mobile app has not worked since Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":608620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,17934],"tags":[7983,55538],"class_list":["post-608618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","category-smartphones","tag-altron","tag-netstar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608618"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608626,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608618\/revisions\/608626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}