KUWAIT: The official spokesman of the Sahel app Yousef Kadhem denied on Wednesday the application had been hacked, after users around Kuwait reported receiving notifications from the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha). Kadhem explained Nazaha has added a new service related to persons subject to the provisions of financial disclosure, after which notifications were sent to the app’s entire userbase, which exceeds 1.7 million users. This affected the app’s performance, slowed down the service and prevented access to some services, he noted.

Kadhem emphasized the importance of obtaining correct information from reliable sources and cautioned against spreading rumors or false information on various media and social platforms. The information and interior ministries have repeatedly stressed the importance of confirming news before publication to prevent the spread of misinformation in society.

Misinformation or “post-truth” has detrimental effects on various domains such as the economy, health and foreign policy, with misinformation becoming pervasive in digital media environments. Kadhem affirmed that Nazaha included various data related to persons subject to financial disclosure provisions, including the date of the next financial disclosure and previously submitted financial disclosure statements.

Cybersecurity expert Muhammad Al-Rashidi reassured that Sahel is one of the most secure government applications despite experiencing temporary issues due to high usage. “It is not a matter of worry, as the most advanced applications in the world can also suffer from the same thing, due to high usage at the same time. People can access the application by simply giving it time and restarting the application,” he explained. “Those whose application has crashed can delete and redownload the app,” he added, assuring it will operate normally again.