SL’s digital backbone under threat?

* Concerns raised about the security and reliability of Sri Lanka’s digital government infrastructure

*SLCERT states that disruption caused by internal technical issues, not an external cyberattack

*Experts express concern that the disruption might have made data vulnerable

*ICTA engineers are working to restore the systems

*Citizens advised to manually obtain certificates from Divisional Secretariats until systems are restored

Colombo, Oct . 14 (Daily Mirror) - Several key online government services were hit by a sudden technical failure in the Lanka Government Cloud (LGC), raising alarm over a possible data breach that may have exposed sensitive citizen and official information.

The disruption crippled major online systems, including the Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Certificate System, the e-Revenue Licence System (eRL 2.0) used by Provincial Departments of Motor Traffic (except in the Western Province), the Police Clearance System, and the Country of Origin Certificate Issuance System of the Department of Commerce.

Websites of the Department of Meteorology, Registrar of Companies, and the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Board were also affected.

Cybersecurity experts have warned that the outage could have left personal and institutional data vulnerable, though the extent of any potential breach remains unclear. ICTA said its engineers, along with the service provider, are working to restore the affected systems, but officials have yet to provide clear answers about what triggered the failure.

In contrast, SLCERT (Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team) maintains that the disruption stemmed from internal technical issues rather than an external cyberattack, a statement that has only fuelled public confusion and concern.

For now, citizens are advised to manually obtain certificates from relevant Divisional Secretariats until online systems are back up.

The incident has once again thrown the spotlight on the security and reliability of Sri Lanka’s digital government infrastructure, prompting urgent questions about whether critical national data is truly safe in the cloud.

An official from the SLCERT stated that no response or request had been received from ICTA.

Multiple attempts to contact ICTA officials to inquire about the issue were unsuccessful.