Panic hits as Anonymous hack SA sites

Published Feb 13, 2016

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Johannesburg - The government is still trying to figure out why a radical group of online hackers breached its site on Thursday, leaking classified information belonging to hundreds of its employees and exposing them to cybercrime.

The hacker collective call themselves Anonymous and this week struck panic and fear again with their target of government databases in African states as well as the website and databases of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

#OpAfrica #Hack_Africa2532 Web Site #Hacked by @TobitowTHA& @HackerArgentino #TeamHackArgentino FUCK ! @webafrica pic.twitter.com/mcibQxwXRo

— ๖ۣۜTøbιtøω☆ (@TobitowTHA) February 12, 2016

According to MyBroadband, names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, hashed passwords and identity document numbers of almost 1 500 SA government employees were posted online under “Operation Africa” - a theme the group uses to promote what it describes as ridding African governments of corruption.

It is believed the group of individuals, identified by their Guy Fawkes masks last week, breached Ugandan and Rwandan government websites, disclosing highly sensitive data, including e-mail conversations between officials.

AVG AntiVirus #Hacked| https://t.co/VG3j4UrcMB| #OpAfrica #Hack_Africa por @TobitowTHA by @HackerArgentino #THA=) pic.twitter.com/19MYAtuKTb

— ๖ۣۜTøbιtøω☆ (@TobitowTHA) February 12, 2016

In a two-minute video posted online, the group maintains “it does not forgive or forget” and its sole purpose is to highlight the atrocities and injustices carried out by African leaders. It adds that its aim is to bring to an end child abuse, child labour and internet censorship.

Friday, on Twitter, a user by the name of @TobitowTHA, who describes himself as a defacer and part of TeamHack Argentino and Anonymous Argentina, posted updates of hacked sites. Apart from the GCIS, sites compromised include Cape Town Printing, Chubb911, Child In Crisis (Bethany House) and many more.

The hackers were quoted on HackRead.com as saying: “We the Anonymous will never harm civilians or job-seekers. However, governments and their officials are always under the radar so we decided to leak a small portion of the data.”

GCIS acting director-general Donald Liphoko confirmed the site was breached.

He said the department detected hacking activity on its public facing website on Thursday. The website content was pixellated and an image of someone in a mask appeared on the site.

The site has since been restored.

Liphoko could not immediately say what extra measures would be taken to ensure the department’s database would be secure in the future, or whether the site had been hacked before.

“To deface a website is one thing,” a cyber security expert said. “But if people can access confidential information such as passwords and numbers, one can never tell what might happen.

“More sites such as Facebook, Twitter and personal banking sites could also be hacked into.”

Saturday Star

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