The Department of Immigration and Citizen Services says it is doing everything within its power to recover the passport issuance system which reportedly got hacked.
In a statement, the department says it hopes to recover the system before the expiry of President Lazarus Chakwera’s 21-day ultimatum.
There are nine days to go for the department’s leadership to fix the passport mess or face the chop in line with Chakwera’s earlier warning.
Meanwhile, the department discloses it has managed to recover the demographic/personal data which was also lost following the hacking of their system.
A month ago, it was reported that the Department of Immigration had been experiencing network problems, prompting it to halt the provision of some of its services.
The department later issued a statement in which it indicated that it had suspended its operations to pave the way for maintenance works on the system.
But it was emerged that the system was hacked and that the department has been engaging some information technology (IT) experts to restore it.
Speaking in Parliament, President Chakwera admitted that the system was hacked and that hackers were demanding money from Malawi government.
However, Chakwera vowed that as long as he is the president of this country, he will not allow the government to pay such an amount.
