18 September 2018

 

Dear PPECB Stakeholders

PPECB ICT SYSTEMS OFFLINE

This communication serves to inform you that as of Friday 14 September, several PPECB ICT systems are offline.

After becoming aware of prevalent ICT issues within the organisation, the PPECB, together with its external forensic auditing team, collected information and conducted multiple tests which made it clear that our network was accessed and compromised by an external party.

Unfortunately, the problem is extensive, with PPECB ICT systems being affected nationally. As a precaution, the PPECB has shut down its network resulting in the business being offline on several platforms.

Systems and processes affected, and currently unavailable, include finance, communications, and data and information reporting platforms. As a result, the PPECB is unable to make payments, generate and process invoices, provide operational data to industry and receive and respond to emails.

Furthermore, although TITAN is operational as it is hosted separately, tablets currently can’t connect to the PPECB network. Inspectors will thus need to connect to the packhouse’s wifi in order to use TITAN. If wifi is not available the manual process will need to be followed.

Where possible, our operations team has been instructed to utilise alternative communication methods such as WhatsApp, fax and phone calls to liaise with clients and suppliers.

As of Friday morning a team of specialists have been working closely with the PPECB to assess the extent of the impact. In addition, our team has already begun to rebuild and repair our system. At this time we are unfortunately unable to provide an estimate of when we expect to be online again, however we can assure you that this is receiving our urgent attention.

Should you urgently need to contact the PPECB we request that you contact employees on their landlines or cell phones. Please find below a list of critical contact numbers:

Operations:

  • Ceres and Paarl: Reggie Cloete 082 462 0471
  • Citrusdal and Lower Orange River: Warren Farmer 076 712 1363
  • Grabouw and Robertson: Werner Michaels 082 418 2544
  • Nelspruit: Selby Mahlalela 082 948 8073
  • Tzaneen: Jaco Bloemhof 082 491 1459
  • Durban: Zaheer Hoosen 082 451 0498
  • Port Elizabeth: Misumzi Xata 082 044 3354
  • Cape Town: Achmad Hanief 082 440 9391
  • Gauteng: Oupa Msimanga 079 505 1080

Laboratory: Hein Engelbrecht 084 665 4431

Finance: Aneesa Moosa-Camroodien 083 388 6180

Information Provision: Sarel van Wyk 082 461 6314

Marketing and General Enquiries: Tina-Louise Rabie: 071 870 7185

We apologise for any inconvenience experienced and assure you of our commitment to resolving this matter as quickly as possible. We thank you for your support and will update you as information becomes available. Our website, www.ppecb.com, which is unaffected by this incident, will be utilised to provide regular updates on the status of this matter.

Kind Regards
Lucien Jansen
CEO,the PPECB