Question NW3013 to the Minister of Home Affairs
06 November 2018 - NW3013
Waters, Mr M to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
What steps have been put in place to ensure the Electoral Commission of South Africa is not subjected to cyber attacks and espionage from foreign organisations and countries?
Reply:
The Question was referred to the Electoral Commission which responded as follows:
The Electoral Commission has implemented security and access control policies aimed at mitigating the risk of espionage and cyber attacks. These include the following:
- Access controls – Access to information is controlled and made available on a need to know basis;
- Security Firewalls – Implemented modern and latest security protection and monitoring systems and devices;
- Implemented 24*7/365 real-time monitoring of all security requirements including hacking or attempted hacking, software viruses, malware, etc.
- Use network segmentation to limit access;
- Employs and/or contracts only South African professionals in its ICT department;
- Occasionally commissions an independent audit of the network and data security, in addition to regular security assessment audits by the Internal Audit and the Office of AGSA;
- Commissions a separate parallel SOC (security operations centre) during major electoral events such as elections; and
- Has an added filtering later at its ISP (Internet Service Provider).