SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
29 June 2011
A group known as Lulz Security (LulzSec) has announced that it has hacked into the Zimbabwe government website (http://www.gta.gov.zw) and taken material on “everything” there is to know about the government’s internet database.
The government website has information on official reports, national policies, official speeches and the country’s constitution. It also has information on the economy, taxation and labour laws, among other data. Most importantly it serves as a link to the websites for the different ministries that make up the government.
On Wednesday, IT expert Douglas Siwira told SW Radio Africa that the hacking will leave the government portal severely compromised. He said the hackers will have taken things like administrator passwords and be able to alter anything they want on the site, if they choose to. In another countries government websites usually contain social security numbers and similar confidential information.
On Tuesday LulzSec posted several files online, including in some cases passwords and database files, which it said were from the governments of Brazil, Australia, Anguilla and Zimbabwe. The campaign by LulzSec, which has been dubbed “AntiSec”, targets governments that engage in corruption and censorship.
The group criticized Mugabe for his repressive regime and said its campaign actually started by targeting the Zimbabwe government “userbase” which it described as “rather small.” Also taken from the portal were a “set of e-mail credentials.” These files have since been uploaded to file-sharing websites like Pirate Bay, Mega Upload and others.
A statement released by the group said; “We provide material that is primarily against corrupt Governments (in our world this is all Governments) and corrupt companies. In this release you will find network data for the Governments of Zimbabwe, Australia, Anguilla (a British overseas territory in the Caribbean) as well as internal information about companies like Universal and Viacom.”
There is speculation that LulzSec is affiliated to the larger hacking group known as Anonymous. In January this year Anonymous hacked into the Zimbabwe government website in retaliation, after the First Lady Grace Mugabe sued the Standard newspaper over a WikiLeaks story alleging she was benefiting from the illegal trading of diamonds from Chiadzwa.
At the time Anonymous said on its website that it was targeting Mugabe and his regime “who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing WikiLeaks.” At that time the Zimbabwean government website was unavailable for over a week, and the finance ministry website displayed a message saying it was under maintenance.
AllAfrica – All the Time
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Zimbabwe: Hacking Group Targets Government Website