No one is immune to getting their social media accounts or even website being hacked. Be it, individuals or corp-orates, all them have always fallen victims. In the last couple of months we have seen Twitter accounts of top tech giants CEOs being hacked.
In Kenya, the Ministry of Foreign affairs sever was recently hacked by hackers affiliated to Anonymous the hackers claimed to have stolen 1TB of data. Well, the University of Nairobi (UoN) last week became a victim of the same. A group of hackers managed to find their way into the university’s blog site and Twitter handle.
Not so many people noticed this but according to statement from the the Communication Authority (CA) at around 4:00pm Monday 11th, the UoN blog site was defaced by hackers. One of the University’s Twitter account was also compromised and used to share a few blog post site usernames and passwords.
The communication Authority however says through a collaborative effort with the University and CA’s National Cybersecurity Centre, they managed to contain the cyber attack.
‘’We are further making all efforts to ensure full restoration of any affected systems and the resumption of normal operations.’’ Francis Wangusi, Director General Communication Authority said in the statement.
This is not the first time UoN was being hacked. In 2012, a hacker breached the University’s server and leaked over 3,500 user IDs and passwords.
Cybercrime has become a global challenge and the CA has urged the public and stakeholders to offer the government support as it strives to ensure Kenyans enjoy a safer cyberspace. According to The 2015 Cyber Security Report by Serianu Cyber Threat Intelligence Team, the public sector in Kenya lost more than Sh5 billion from cybercrime attacks.
In a previous interview we had with Bethwel Opil, Channel Sales Manager for East Africa at Kaspersky Lab to discuss about the state of cyber security in Kenya, education around cybercrime and the need for IT security within organizations, however small should become key in 2016. According to Bethwel, cybersecurity is not an issue that only IT people should take into consideration. ‘’The reality is that it concerns everyone – consumers, home users and their families, small businesses and large organisations, including governments.’’
