172/68 Tuesday, May 13, 2025
South African Airways (SAA), the national carrier of South Africa, confirmed that it experienced a cyberattack on May 3, 2025, which temporarily disrupted its website, mobile app, and some internal operating systems. However, flight operations and core services remained unaffected. The airline’s IT team quickly brought the situation under control, restoring affected systems within the same day by activating its disaster recovery and business continuity protocols.
SAA stated that it has launched a full investigation into the incident in collaboration with external digital forensics experts to determine the cause and extent of the breach. The airline has also notified relevant government bodies, including the State Security Agency (SSA), South African Police Service (SAPS), and the Information Regulator under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) to ensure legal compliance. At this time, no technical details about the nature of the attack have been disclosed.
This incident adds to a growing list of cyberattacks targeting South African businesses in early 2025, including the MTN Group, which recently confirmed a data breach; Cell C, which was hit by the RansomHouse ransomware group resulting in a 2 TB data leak; and Astral Foods, a major poultry producer that reportedly lost over $1 million due to an attack that disrupted its logistics and operations.
