There have been several cyber attacks attempts targeting both the Government and the Private sector in the past one week.
Information, Communications and Digital Economy CS Eliud Owalo says the attacks were however unsuccessful.
He says the e-Citizen portal, which has been onboarded with over 5,000 government services, was among the targets of the unsuccessful attacks.
“The attack on the e-Citizen platform entailed an unsuccessful attempt to overload the system through extraordinary requests, with the intention of clogging it, but our technical teams blocked the source IP address where the requests were emanating from,” CS Owalo said in a statement dated July 27, 2023.
“For clarity, both the privacy and security of data were not compromised. The system was not hacked,” he added assuring the country that the attempts have been rebuffed by the security systems and applications in place.
This notwithstanding, the CS says the system has as a result been experiencing intermittent interruptions that are affecting the normal speed in accessing services on the platform.
So much that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that all travelers be issued visa upon arrival at the entry points of Kenya.
In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry advised all airlines to on-board travelers destined to Kenya.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presents its complements to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations in Kenya and has the honor to inform that there is currently a challenge in the Government e-Citizen platform which is impacting processing of e-visa,” read the statement.
“Therefore, travelers will be issued visa upon arrival at all entry points to Kenya. The Government also wishes to advise all airlines to on-board travelers destined to Kenya.”
Also not spared by the interruption was the country’s utility firm, Kenya Power.
In a statement Thursday, the firm announced that it was experiencing a hitch due to a network breakdown from its service provider.
“Consequently, some of our services such as the purchase of prepaid tokens through M-Pesa and USSD Code *977# are unavailable,” said Kenya Power which moved to assure customers that it was working with its service provider to restore the affected services as soon as possible.
It said customers can however purchase tokens from its banking halls, Airtel Money, and authorized banks.
In his statement, CS Owalo assured the country that the relevant agencies of the Government are on high alert and have enhanced the security of the e-Citizen portal and all Government Services Sites.
He says the Government will continue its cyber surveillance efforts and called on the Public and Private sectors to follow suit so that jointly, the country’s Cyberspace can be secured.
