Hunters International attacks Namibia telecom systems, impacts 493k people
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A cyberattack claimed by the Hunters International ransomware group has resulted in one of Namibia's largest data security breaches, compromising sensitive information of over 493,000 individuals, ministries, state-owned enterprises, and private businesses. The attack led to the exposure of 626 gigabytes of data after Telecom Namibia refused to pay an undisclosed ransom demand.
Namibia's CSIRT detected the data exfiltration on December 11, and by December 13, 2024, the hackers had released the stolen data on the dark web after their ransom demands weren't met. Telecom Namibia's initial response appeared to downplay the incident, with CEO Stanley Shanapinda claiming "no data had been compromised" just before the data was publicly leaked.
The leaked information includes:
- Personal identification documents
- Bank details
- Customer contracts
- Internal budget reports from 2021-2024
- Information of high-profile individuals including the current President, former President, government ministers, and prominent business leaders
The nature of the attack is not disclosed, but it's most probably ransomware
The breach has sparked significant concern among Namibian officials and cybersecurity experts. Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula expressed uncertainty about the future security of the compromised information.
Individuals affected by recent data breaches should immediately change their passwords, enable two-factor authentication on sensitive accounts, actively monitor their bank statements for suspicious activity, and stay alert for potential identity theft schemes and phishing scams that could exploit their exposed information.
