Local mining giant Sibanye-Stillwater, one of the world’s biggest producers of platinum and gold, has revealed that its global IT systems have suffered a cyberattack.

In a notice informing stakeholders, the company said it has implemented security measures to isolate its IT systems and protect critical data.

“As soon as the Company became aware of the incident, immediate containment measures were implemented in line with our Incident Response plan, to proactively isolate IT systems and safeguard data,” it said.

“While the investigation into the incident is ongoing, there has been limited disruption to the Group’s operations globally.”

It emphasised that it takes such incidents seriously and is committed to addressing the breach.

“We are voluntarily reporting this incident to the appropriate regulators and will provide further updates as necessary,” it added.

Sibanye-Stillwater has operations on five continents and is a global leader in platinum and gold production with a market cap of R60.5 billion.

The attack on the mining giant comes after a slew of cybercriminal acts targeting high-profile organisations in South Africa.

South African packaging giant Nampak suffered a data breach in March 2024.

“An unknown third party gained access to its IT systems, notwithstanding the company’s robust and embedded security protocols,” Nampak stated.

The breach forced the company to resort to backup manual compensating controls to continue its operations while the breach was addressed.

It also forced it to delay the release of its interim results by a month.

In early July 2024, Standard Bank suffered widespread problems with customers’ accounts being marked for fraudulent activity and blocked.

The bank was forced to deny allegations that it had suffered a data breach after its client base expressed outrage at the situation.

Instead, it blamed the issues on a spike in month-end transactions, which had supposedly caused delayed responses from its call centre.

Private companies aren’t the only South African organisations with a target on their back. In late June 2024, the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) was forced to shut down its IT systems following a data breach.

The attackers left behind a message identifying themselves as the BlackSuit hacking group.