Following the failure of an online application platform that made the majority of government services unavailable, Kenya said on Thursday that it will begin granting visas upon arrival to all travelers.The problem that occurred on the e-citizen site, which offers more than 5,000 government services including e-visas, was believed to be the consequence of hacking; nevertheless, authorities said that no data had been lost as a result of the event. While the platform is being fixed, the government will begin accepting visa applications upon arrival, according to a notice verbale that was sent on Thursday to diplomatic missions and international organizations throughout the world.
A letter that was sent out on Thursday by the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, it was stated that “There is currently a challenge in the Government e-citizen platform.”Therefore, travelers will be awarded visas upon arrival at all entry ports in Kenya, regardless of where they enter the country. Additionally, the administration wants to notify any and all airlines that have passengers on board who are going to Kenya,” the statement read. The electronic visa application will often accept applications; nonetheless, these applications are required to be accompanied by the appropriate evidence in order to authenticate entry.
Because each application will now be evaluated at the same time, there is a possibility of increased wait times at airport border clearance offices as a result of the implementation of visas upon arrival for all travelers.”The government had earlier explained that the downtime that is being experienced on the eCitizen portal has been caused by hackers attempting to jam the portal through an overload of data requests,” ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo confessed. “The downtime that is being experienced on the eCitizen portal has been caused by hackers attempting to jam the portal through an overload of data requests.”
A group that goes by the name Anonymous Sudan has taken responsibility for the attack, claiming that they carried it out as a form of protest against Kenya’s purported intervention in the internal affairs of Sudan.
According to the statement, the organization has also targeted mobile money transfer platforms, electronic banking systems, and other electronic services similar to those of the utility company Kenya Power. Customers of Kenya Power and some banks were informed of an outage in the system, but no information about hacking was provided.
“A cyber-attack was launched against the eCitizen platform, however no data was obtained or lost as a result of the assault. “We are addressing that, and we are not just coming up with instant remedial measures to address the current situation, but we are also ensuring that we build an elaborate risk mitigation framework,” stated the CS on Spice FM. “We are addressing that, and we are not just coming up with instant remedial measures to address the current situation.” “In this particular instance, they attempted to jam the system by making a greater number of requests into the system than is typical, which resulted in the system’s performance becoming more sluggish.”
Information security specialist, currently working as risk infrastructure specialist & investigator.
15 years of experience in risk and control process, security audit support, business continuity design and support, workgroup management and information security standards.
