By Cathy Maulidi:
Over the past few weeks, Malawians have been bombarded with reports from the government that hackers have taken hold of the passport issuance system.
Government has also told Malawians that it is doing all it can to retrieve the system as soon as possible.
But retaking the system will not solve the crisis immediately, we can report.
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As gathered from well-placed sources, the Immigration passport issuance system has been completely destroyed.
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The Immigration Department has also lost all the data for passport holders.
This means if you have a passport now and it expires, you will have to go through the same process you went through when you were processing the passport for the first time.
We have information that the fingerprint identification system has not been recovered.
To get it back, it would require reinstallation of some data that are key to unlocking the system.
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The servers were encrypted and it would take time to get it back to its normal status.
An insider at the department has also told us that government is having sleepless nights trying to recover the data and the passport system.
“The immigration has lost all the data and getting it back won’t be an easy task. A number of companies have been engaged to help recover the system and the data but some are charging too much.
“Others are giving long term solutions that do not work with the President’s directive of recovering the system in three weeks. Remember we are remaining with two weeks now.
“So this issue of data is so worrying. The issue has been discussed and the resolution at the moment is that those wanting passport renewal will bring their expired passports and they will undergo that whole new passport processing and not a renewal as it was the case before the ordeal,” said the source.
We have also established that government has contracted a firm known as E-Tech Systems to assist in recovering the passport issuing system.
However, the company will not be responsible for the lost data recovery.
“E-Tech is working on recovering the passport issuing system and not the lost data. The issue of data recovery is being handled by the E-Government team.
“Until the data is recovered, passport renewal will be a problem,” said a source from the government.
We can also report that at the moment, government has set up a team to oversee the system recovery.
The team comprises Immigration, Homeland Security Ministry, Information ministry, Malawi Police Service, E-Government department, Attorney General, Secretary to President and Cabinet and other institutions.
During a meeting that took place on Wednesday, President Lazarus Chakwera directed that ICT Association of Malawi (Ictam) should work with Immigration department to recover the system and the data.
“I have directed that the Immigration department be offered all the required support including from Ictam to recover the system. If they fail to deliver results, I will replace them,” Chakwera said in his speech delivered on Thursday in Lilongwe.
The source from immigration, however fears that despite such support, recovery of the data may take some time.
“These are international hackers. They are demanding bitcoins. They took full control of the whole system and they communicate to the Immigration using the computer screens,” the source added.
We can also report that a few days ago, a team from Malawi led by Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda has a virtual meeting with Techno Brain officials where Malawi tried to engage the former supplier of the Immigration system to help recover the system.
While confirming the meeting, Chakaka Nyirenda refused to divulge what transpired during the meeting.
But other sources have told Malawi News that Techno Brian offered a temporary solution to the problem for which they charged more than what the hackers are demanding.
According to the sources, Techno Brain was asking for $1.6 million (about K3 billion) to undertake the task.
We are further informed that Techno Brain demanded that they be paid the money before the works could start.
In a statement released on February 27, Techno Brain confirmed having been approached by the government on the issue but said government hasn’t gotten back to them after the engagement.
“We conducted an assessment of the situation and submitted practical suggestions to the Malawi government on the way forward.
“We have not heard back from Malawi government on these suggestions to date,” reads a statement from Techno Brain.
Commenting on the development, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) chairperson Gift Trapence has said at issue in this saga, among others, is that the Immigration Department is not being honest with information to the public.
“The Ministry of Homeland Security told Malawians that they have recovered 90 percent of the system. Now comes this data issue.
“This maladministration has cost the government and the taxpayers highly. Someone should be accountable. The President should take a decisive action to make sure that whoever created this mess is accountable. Malawians deserve better and should not suffer because of inefficiencies of an institution due to unprofessional conduct and poor decision making of some officials. Heads should roll for this mess,” Trapence said.
On Thursday, President Chakwera warned the authorities to retake possession of the system or face the chop.
