South African National Lottery gains recognition by WLA

In that way Gidani is one of the 49 out 147 members of WLA so distinguished globally.

Having met the criteria set by the WLA Security Control Standard 2006, Gidani was bestowed the accreditation by WLA in accordance with the recommendation of the WLA Security and Risk Management Committee.  The certification satisfies both the requirements of the International Standards Organization (ISO) 27001-2005 as well as 96 additional security requirements set forth by the WLA which include 72 lottery-specific requirements.

BSI (British Standard Institution) based in Germany was the auditing body which conducted rigorous audits and assessments including site inspections and spot checks in the last few months.  The information security audit by BSI also covered the company head office in Midrand, all the 8 Gidani regional offices, the backup and disaster recovery centre in Mpumalanga.  As pointed out in the citation, the certificate is valid for all the locations.

“The greater challenge going forward is bearing such standard once you have attained it. As much as it is a prestigious accolade, the burden that the accreditation places on Gidani and the South African National Lottery is daunting”, remarks Bongani Aug Khumalo, Chief Executive of Gidani. “We are an information and information technology driven industry. All our stakeholders especially our customers who play our games have to be assured of the unstinting integrity of our security.”

Gidani has operated the National Lottery since October 2007. There are about 8000 terminals deployed at retailers throughout the South Africa. Each district has to have at least one terminal at a retail outlet. Gidani sells its tickets through the internet, SMS (short messaging system), banking channels including the ATMs (presently only First National Bank), mail subscription and tills in the large retail chain stores of various sorts.