Over the course the week, Kenya's cyber security resilience faced a significant test as Sudanese cyber attackers wreaked havoc by targeting Kenyan companies and vital government websites.
The series of attacks raised critical concerns about Kenya's preparedness to effectively combat and mitigate large-scale cyber threats.
In the aftermath of the cyber attacks, politicians from both the ruling coalition and the opposition have urged President William Ruto to take swift action and hold the perpetrators of the nationwide cyber attack accountable.
Homa Bay Town Member of Parliament, Peter Kaluma, emphatically called on President Ruto to act promptly, describing the perpetrators as international law breakers and emphasised the urgency of dealing with them decisively to dissuade them from striking again.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) legislator stressed that such swift action would not only serve to bring the attackers to justice but also restore a much-needed sense of confidence among the public regarding the government's capability to safeguard Kenyans' data and protect the nation from potential cyber threats in the future.
Weighing in on the matter, Nominated Senator Tabitha Mutinda reiterated that the recent spate of attacks were alarming and expressed concerns over the manner at which the government had been caught flat footed.
She stressed the need to put in place appropriate measures to safeguard user data and protect critical communications infrastructure.
The nominated UDA senator also raised the possibility that the attackers operating under the pseudonym Anonymous Sudan might not be the actual perpetrators, but rather an attempt to divert attention from the true culprits.
She expressed her confusion over the motive that Sudanese cyber attackers could have to launch an attack on Kenya, given the historically good relations between the two countries.
"I agree it gives the worry factor for Kenyans. Sometimes these names brought about by the attackers are just disguises to try and put a picture to confuse people," she stated.
She noted that the government ought to ensure that such an attack does not occur again, especially considering that eCitizen, one of the first websites to be targeted, hosts over 5,000 digital government services.
Anonymous Sudan took the credit of infiltrating major websites including State agencies and private companies. Following this, various organisations reported downtimes in key websites.
The group utilised the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) technique - where the attackers disrupt the normal traffic flow by flooding the network with heavy traffic hence causing the site to be inaccessible.
Responding to the developments, the Interior Ministry confirmed that the attack took place but noted that all services on the eCitizen platform were up and running. The ministry assured Kenyans that no data was lost during the incident.
"The attack not only indicates that we are surrounded by malicious actors, both locally and internationally, but also vindicates the government’s relentless pursuit of stronger cybersecurity measures to safeguard our Critical Information Infrastructure and data from such threats," the statement read in part.
