Ransomware severely disrupts GPAA pension-benefits administration

South Africa's Government Pensions Administration Agency detected a security breach on 16 February 2024 and shut down its systems to contain the incident. Subsequent official reporting identified ransomware activity linked to LockBit 3.0 and described severe disruption to GPAA operations, particularly benefits administration, after critical files were encrypted. System restoration continued into April. The Government Employees Pension Fund stated that pension payments themselves were not affected, so the incident is classified on the basis of the documented disruption to pension administration rather than payment interruption.