Kenya’s official presidential website was briefly hacked on Saturday, with attackers replacing the homepage with a message directed at President William Ruto and demanding a ransom of five Bitcoins.
The breach targeted the official presidency portal, president.go.ke. The hackers displayed a cryptocurrency wallet address and threatened to release unspecified information unless the ransom was paid.
Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo confirmed the cyberattack and said government cybersecurity teams were investigating the incident.
“Our cyber team is on top of the situation,” Kabogo said.
State House also confirmed that its information technology team was working to contain the breach and restore the website.
By Saturday afternoon, the defaced page had been removed and the website had been taken offline. However, normal services had not yet resumed.
Kenyan authorities did not immediately disclose whether sensitive government information had been accessed or compromised. It also remained unclear whether the hackers had only altered the publicly accessible website or had managed to penetrate internal government systems.
The attack has renewed concerns over cybersecurity within Kenyan government institutions, which have faced several attempted and successful cyberattacks in recent years.