Due to the increased regulatory compliance frameworks within South Africa brought about by the General Laws Amendment Act, 22 of 2022, criminals are feeling the pressure and as one of the Regulators tasked with enforcing compliance to the legislation, the CIPC is not immune to levels of criminality levelled against it.

The resultant effect is heightened awareness of security (especially cyber security) risks and greater vigilance in terms of the protection of the data the CIPC is custodian of. CIPC says it has been and continues to deploy additional security and verification layers on all its transactional platforms, but clients are urged to update and amend all passwords and login information, as an added security measure.

The CIPC says that without detracting from the seriousness of the security breach incident, it’s important to mention that the CIPC is not the only organisation that has been subjected to such a breach. “There has been a massive increase of cyber-attacks within South Africa and it would seem that as a jurisdiction, we are being targeted.”

Breaching the security infrastructure of any organisation, institution or agency is nothing more than a criminal act and the perpetrators are criminals that should be portrayed as such. As a result of the criminal nature of the unlawful and mala fide breach of the CIPC security systems and protocols, the CIPC will take the necessary steps to ensure that the guilty are held responsible for the crimes committed.