Johannesburg has once again fallen victim to a ransomware attack in just a few months. The hacking group that attacked the city's systems is called Shadow Kill Hackers and is demanding 4 bitcoins from the city authorities. Otherwise, the hackers are threatening to upload all the city's files online 
City officials must pay the ransom by tomorrow, October 28th.
“Your servers and data have been destroyed,” the hackers said in the message they left. “We have dozens of backdoors in your city. We control everything in your city. We have compromised all the passwords and sensitive personal and financial data of the population.”
This message appeared on employee computers.
As soon as the authorities were informed of the incident, they shut down all systems (e.g. sites, payment portals and other electronic services).
Later, it was announced, via the city's official Twitter account, that the systems had been breached by hackers
At first, city officials and employees thought it was a ransomware attack like the one that hit the city's power grid in July. That attack left the city without power for several days. But this latest attack is different. Experts have discovered that the hackers did not encrypt the city's computers.
The hackers also posted screenshots on Twitter showing that they had gained access to the city's Active Directory server.
The 4 bitcoins the hackers are demanding is equivalent to about $30,000. At this time, it is unknown whether Johannesburg officials will pay the ransom.
DDoS attacks on banks
At the same time, media reports indicate that several South African banks have been hit by a DDoS attack, causing their services to be unavailable. Two of the five banks that were hit by the DDoS attack are Standard Bank and Absa.
Initially, some said the same hacking group was behind the bank attacks. However, Shadow Kill Hackers said on Friday that they were not involved in those attacks.
