Website hack claims false - education dept

Johannesburg - Claims that the basic education department's website has been hacked are false, it said on Friday.

"These claims are both false and misleading," spokesperson Terence Khala said in a statement.

The Times reported on Friday that the department was in turmoil after its website suffered a "catastrophic hack attack".

Insiders told the publication that information related to policy, tenders, research papers, personal information, and matric results, had gone missing.

Khala said the department had lost no data, and all information was backed up.

"A week ago, the website server crashed at the Sita [State Information Technology Agency] centre in Centurion. There was no hacking at all."

Khala said it was highly improbably that a government department would store all its information on a website.

"The department is not in turmoil and, in fact, the sensationalism is unfortunate."

He urged website visitors to be patient while data was loaded back onto the site.