Cyberattack Disrupts Angola's Largest Telco Unitel Hours Before IPO
Angola's largest telecommunications operator, Unitel, experienced a nationwide outage of voice, mobile data, and internet services due to a cyberattack, occurring just hours before its planned stock market debut.
Angola's primary telecommunications provider, Unitel, was struck by a significant cyberattack in the early hours of Tuesday, resulting in a widespread disruption of voice, mobile data, and internet services across the nation. The incident occurred less than 24 hours before the company's highly anticipated debut on the Angolan stock exchange, casting a shadow over the landmark event.
Unitel confirmed the detection of the attack shortly after 2 a.m. local time. The company stated that "response and containment mechanisms were immediately activated, and technical and cybersecurity teams were mobilized" in an effort to mitigate the impact and restore services. Despite these efforts, services remained disrupted, with Unitel acknowledging that "all necessary actions are underway to stabilize and fully restore the network." However, the company did not provide a timeline for service restoration or disclose the specific nature of the attack.
Analysis of network data from RIPE NCC suggests the disruption was internal rather than an external connectivity cut or a volumetric distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Unitel's IP prefixes remained announced to the global internet, indicating that the core network infrastructure remained online. This points towards an incident that compromised or disabled critical internal systems, preventing services from functioning.
Traffic telemetry from Cloudflare Radar corroborated the severity of the outage, showing a sharp decline in Unitel's network traffic from the time of detection, which persisted well below normal levels. The disruption appears to be isolated to Unitel, as no other Angolan network operators experienced similar degradation during the same period. The outage has also had a ripple effect on businesses, disrupting point-of-sale payment terminals and other digital services reliant on Unitel's network.
Despite the ongoing service disruption, Unitel proceeded with its initial public offering (IPO) on the Angolan securities exchange, BODIVA, on Wednesday. This listing marked the largest in Angola's capital market history. Unitel, which serves over 20 million customers and holds a significant market share, is a key component of the Angolan government's privatization program aimed at reducing state economic dominance and attracting foreign investment.
The IPO, which saw a 15% stake in the company sold, was oversubscribed, attracting over 11,000 investors. The listing is seen as a crucial test of investor confidence in Angolan state assets. Unitel's journey to privatization included the state taking control in 2022 after previous shareholdings were seized as part of an anti-corruption initiative.
The trading commenced on Wednesday, valuing the company at approximately $2.14 billion and raising around $321 million for the government. Neither BODIVA nor Angola's capital markets regulator had issued public statements regarding the cyberattack at the time of publication. Angolan authorities have also remained silent on whether the attack was connected to the IPO.
This incident highlights the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures, especially for major infrastructure providers and companies undergoing significant financial events like an IPO. The timing of the attack raises questions about potential motives, whether to disrupt the IPO, cause financial damage, or exploit the heightened attention on the company.