Telecom Namibia chief executive Stanley Shanapinda says the organisation did not entertain negotiating with extortionists Hunters International after they were given a deadline to pay an unknown ransom.
“What they did is they contacted us, indicating that they wanted to discuss what the ransom would be that needs to be paid. We did not engage with them after we got that message. We do not negotiate with cyber terrorists,” he says.
This comes as the organisation experienced a security breach over the weekend.
Speaking on Desert FM on Monday morning, Shanapinda urged the government to create the necessary legislation to prevent incidents of this nature.
He reflected on past experiences and said ransom amounts are usually unaffordable and that there would be no point in discussing this with them.
“Even if you did pay, there’s no guarantee that the information would not be released anyways,” Shanapinda said.
The government has launched an investigation into the security breach that resulted in the personal information of over 619 000 Telecom Namibia clients being leaked online last week.
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