The Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) has denied allegations by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) staff sabotaged the digitalised revenue mobilisation system.
According to them, the account of the Dr Bawumia is not accurate.
He said it took the intervention of the National Security to fish out the perpetrators and restore the system.
However, in a press release signed by the General Secretary of PUWU, Michael Adumatta Nyantakyi, he said ECG IT staff did not have sole access to the system when the ransomware attacks first occurred in September 2022.
PUWU said that before the ransomware incidents, EOCO initiated a forensic audit on the ECG Power App involving third-party IT professionals, demanding, among other things, credentials to the backend prepayment systems.
“The first ransomware attack occurred on September 28, 2022, which took a wide scope prompting the need to report the Incident to the Cyber Security Authority, as required by regulation. The National Security thereafter took over the ECG ICT system as the attack was seen as a threat to national security.
“In the midst of the takeover, the second and most severe of the ransomware attacks occurred on the 11th November 2022, at the time the National Security personnel had both full physical access and software administrative rights to all ECG systems. The National Security arrested and detained some ECG ICT staff for days but were later released,” the statement read.
The statement added that the ECG IT staff worked tirelessly to solve the damage caused by the ransomware attack, with support from E-crime Bureau, a cybersecurity firm invited by the ECG Board.
“It is therefore factually inaccurate that National Security came in to recover the system, as reported by His Excellency the Vice President.”
Below is the full statement