BYOD #15: South Africa’s month of hacks
This week’s round-up of digital security news and investigative journalism in Africa.
ANCIR’s weekly post offering interesting — or amusing — digital security news from around the world, and tips for newsrooms, journalists and sources on the latest security measures.
South African presidency website hacked … again
The South African presidency website has been hacked again. The site went offline on Thursday evening raising concerns by curious citizens. A Twitter user going by the handle @VirusSec claimed responsibility for the hack, tweeting a link to South Africa’s bone trade with the quote Greed has taken over the African presidency long ago #OpFunKill”.
In August 2017, the same Twitter user claimed responsibility for the hacking of the South Africa government website which, according to him, was inspired by the sale of rhino horn and lion bones. This latest hack comes barely a month after the same site was hacked by another group named “Black Team”.
South Africa’s largest history website taken down
South Africa’s largest history website, South African History Online, was hacked. Speaking to TimesLive on Monday, the founder of the digital archive, Omar Badsha, stated that the site “simply disappeared”. Badsha also stated that although the site receives a lot of hate mail, he believes that the hack was a random act and confirmed ongoing investigations on the hack. It took two days for the website to be restored and it’s now back up.
Ugandans take to the streets to protest social media taxes
The new social media tax that was introduced in Uganda early this month continues to receive a lot of negative criticism from the citizens. Campaigners have taken to the streets to protest the tax. In an unusual move, the campaigners recorded messages asking social media users to not pay the levy. According to The Nation, the messages were then aired from loudspeakers stationed at strategic points. Ugandans have been protesting online using the hashtag #TheTaxMustGo, prompting President Yoweri Museveni to promise to review the law. So far, no changes have been made, forcing more citizens to turn to VPNs to evade the tax.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device/Data) refers to owning your data and digital property, and keeping it secure. This newsletter is brought to you with support from Project Shield and Code For Africa.
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The African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) is an association of the continent’s best investigative newsrooms, ranging from large traditional media to small specialist units.
ANCIR works to strengthen African investigative journalism by improving the techniques, expertise, the tools used in muckraking newsrooms. This includes providing member newsrooms with the world’s best encryption and semantic analysis technologies, to forensic research support (through the Investigative Dashboard), legal services, and seed grants for cross-border collaboration.
ANCIR is incubated by and receives technical support from Code for Africa.
