🇿🇦 English, 20 October 2026, phishing attack
Legal Aid SA Resets All Passwords After Phishing Attack
Legal Aid South Africa ordered password resets for all employees after a phishing attack, despite denying any successful breach.
Internal documents show that Legal Aid SA instructed employees to attend compulsory cyber security training after the phishing attack. The training covers modern cyber threats, artificial intelligence risks, phishing, deepfakes, data privacy, and everyday cyber security practices. The organisation’s information systems department linked the password resets to the phishing incident and stated that restrictions on email usage will be adjusted.
The phishing e-mails, which circulated on October 8 and 9, purported to be final demands or summonses from the National Prosecuting Authority. Employees who opened an attached PDF were prompted to enter their login credentials, although it is not known whether anyone supplied them. The Information Regulator has not received a notification of a security compromise.
Legal Aid SA spokesperson Pateka Quwe says the organisation is ’not aware of any cyber security breach or successful cyber attack that has compromised the organisation’s IT systems or information.’ Quwe notes that the organisation has established cyber security controls to detect and respond to potential threats and regularly reviews and implements preventative measures.