Passport crisis: Local IT gurus write Immigration Dept asking if they can offer technical expertise
With the passport issue hitting crisis levels and the Department of Immigration appearing cold and helpless, local IT experts in the country have come in asking the department if they can be allowed to help with their technical expertise.
The local experts, under the Information, Communication and Technology Association of Malawi (Ictam), says it is willing to offer technical expertise that will culminate in the recovery of the passport printing system as, according President Lazarus Chakwera, it is allegedly hacked.
Ictam President Clarence Gama said the association is ready to offer expertise on the issue.
“Most of us in the ICT sector have faced such challenges before. When hackers rock you out of a system in a process called ransomware, the only way to recover the system is to pay the ransom or recover from your backups. If we are not paying the ransom, then let us hope that we have the disaster recovery backup. However, the issue could be how long that can take,” Gama said.
He said the third option on the issue is for the Immigration Department to negotiate with the hackers.
He, however, said this is unlikely to yield the desired results.
“If this is a cyberattack, we have cybersecurity experts who can assess the nature of the attack. Is it ransomware and what are they [hackers] looking for? If Immigration has backup, we could find skills from our membership that can help them with restoration. What we have written them is that if there is [a] need for technical support, we have a broad membership who may be able to help,” he said.
The Ictam boss also urged public entities to always seek support from local experts whenever they face challenges in their operations.
Immigration spokesperson Wellington Chiponde did not pick up our calls when we sought his reaction on the issue.
Over a month ago, the Immigration Department started experiencing network problems, prompting it to halt the provision of some of its services.
The department later issued a statement that it had suspended operations because it wanted to work on maintenance of the system.
Other reports indicate that there have been contractual issues between the government and system supplier Techno Brain Limited.
But Ministry of Justice, through its spokesperson Frank Namangale, dismissed the reports.
“We, as a ministry, would also like to clarify that the suspension of passport issuance has nothing to do with contractual disagreements between the Malawi Government and the supplier. The Attorney General has been on top of this issue. The supplier, Techno Brain, handed over the system to the Department of Immigration, including the source code. Work is ongoing to bring the system back,” he said.
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