Senegal’s Directorate General of Public Accounting and the Treasury (DGCPT) confirmed on Monday, May 11, 2026, that a significant portion of its information systems has been disrupted following an “incident” that began the previous day.
Director General Amadou Tidiane Gaye stated that the institution has activated its business continuity plan and implemented immediate protective measures, though the specific nature of the disruption and the services currently offline have not been disclosed. This announcement has led to a formal plea for patience from the public as the Ministry of Finance and Budget works to mitigate the fallout.
This latest system failure follows a high-profile cyberattack against Senegal’s tax authority, the Directorate General of Taxes and State Property (DGID), in October of last year. That breach was attributed to the Black Shrantac group, a cyber-extortion network that claimed to have exfiltrated one terabyte of sensitive administrative and personal data. While the hackers demanded a ransom of $250,000, subsequent dark web investigations raised questions regarding the actual scale of the data theft. Despite the restoration of tax services within twenty-four hours during that previous event, the recurrence of vulnerabilities within Senegal’s financial infrastructure has raised alarms regarding national digital security.
The incident at the Treasury reflects a broader, more aggressive trend of cyber warfare targeting the African continent. Data from the GITEX Africa 2025 summit highlighted a 14 percent increase in spyware attacks and a 26 percent rise in password-targeting malware across Africa, with over 131.5 million web-based threats recorded in 2024 alone. Experts continue to urge public institutions to prioritize multi-factor authentication, regular data backups, and the restriction of unsecured remote access to defend against these emerging threats. As of Monday afternoon, the DGCPT has not provided an estimated timeline for when its digital services will be fully operational.
AC/lb/abj/APA