Somalia has launched an urgent investigation into a significant breach of its electronic visa platform, confirming that sensitive applicant information was compromised in an incident that has heightened domestic anxiety and triggered international scrutiny. The breach surfaced late last week after fragments of personal data began appearing online, prompting concern from travelers, regional partners and cybersecurity analysts about the integrity of one of the government’s most relied upon digital services.
Officials in Mogadishu acknowledged on Sunday that the breach involved unauthorized access to parts of the e-visa database, although they declined to specify the volume or categories of data affected. The system handles thousands of visa applications each month, ranging from business travelers and humanitarian personnel to diaspora Somalis returning from Europe, North America and the Gulf. Its compromised state has raised alarms across a region where governments increasingly depend on digital platforms to process cross border movement but often lack robust cybersecurity protections to match the scale of adoption.
Authorities said a formal forensics review is underway led by Somalia’s National Communications Authority in coordination with cybersecurity units within the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The government said it is working with international partners to determine whether the attack originated from criminal groups seeking financial gain or state linked actors probing vulnerabilities in a politically fragile region. Early assessments suggest the attackers gained access through a misconfigured server interface that exposed parts of the application backend to external queries, a scenario cybersecurity researchers say is both common and preventable.
The breach has unfolded at a sensitive moment for Somalia, which has been attempting to modernize its public administration systems while battling persistent threats from militant groups, criminal networks and foreign influence campaigns. The electronic visa platform was introduced to streamline travel, attract investment and reduce corruption associated with manual visa processing. Its compromise not only threatens the privacy of applicants but raises broader questions about digital resilience and trust in e-government services.
