The website of the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has been down for days following a hacking incident.

Reports first emerged at the weekend that the Sassa website had been compromised. On Sunday, the website was displaying the message: “Innocent ownz your b0x!!!”

By Monday, Sassa had taken the site offline while it worked on restoring it. TechCentral understands that the incident doesn’t affect the agency’s ability to pay social grants.

Twitter user Cobus Viljoen first brought the hack to TechCentral’s attention. Sassa’s official Twitter account responded to Viljoen, saying it was aware of the incident and was “working tirelessly to resolve the matter”.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused,” it said. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media