While internet access was denied to many in the country for 5 days, Uganda government websites hacked like the Parliament of Uganda website were being affected by the cyber attack that was launched by the popular group of hackers known as Anonymousx64 which re-emerged over the weekend. A few sites that are owned by government agencies and media houses were hacked last Saturday, the day of the announcing of election results.
In the wee hours of Saturday morning, Anonymousx64 announced on Twitter that it had hacked websites that belonged to the government of Uganda. It did this in protest of the internet shutdown that the government has since owned up to which started on Wednesday evening of 13th January 2021 all through till Monday 18th January 2021.
This targeted cyber attack that has left some Uganda government websites hacked and information leaked happens after internet was completely shutdown nation wide. This shutdown has been a gradual process which started on Friday 08th January 2021 about a week ago when the AppStore and Google PlayStore were not working which soon progressed to social media apps that were shut down last week.
Read more: Social media shutdown in Uganda catches many off-guard as they struggle to stay connected.
Anonymousx64s’ announcement via Twitter.
Anonymousx64 said it was doing this to expose the lies that the government has told over the years and that its citizens deserve to know the truth. The hacktivists group targeted these websites with a cyber-attack as it accused the government of stepping on people’s freedom of speech and access to information.
List of Uganda government websites hacked
Uganda government websites hacked were those that belong to the Parliament of Uganda, UCC and NBSTV. The emails, passwords and phone numbers of those who work within the Parliament were leaked granting anyone full access to all the documents in the database.
Government files with information concerning budgets, acts of parliament, bills, COVID-19, members of parliament and much more are all available for the public to access in the links on Anonymousx64s’ page.
This is not the first time Anonymousx64 has launched a cyber attack with a few Uganda government websites hacked. In the November protests that took place after the arrest of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, Anonymousx64 hacked the Uganda Police website. Anyone that tried to visit the page was redirected to a different address where they received the message “This site can’t be reached www.upf.go.ug took long to respond.”
Who is Anonymousx64?
Anonymousx64 is Anonymous. All Anonymous groups in the world all over the internet are a collective of the same kind as there is no single official Anonymous group. Anonymousx64 is responsible for the attack on the Uganda Police website in November during the protests after opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi was arrested.
What does Anonymous stand for?
Anonymous is a group of online activists also known as “hacktivists” that have used their knowledge of the internet to launch cyber attacks targeting websites owned by Governments and powerful people with influence as a stand against injustice and violation of human rights. Anonymous believes in freedom of speech and that Governments should be transparent and unbiased and has therefore taken the liberty to assist many with this task just like it has for the Uganda Government. The group is not affiliated with any political or religious group in the world. It believes that everyone is equal.
The hacker’s group is popularly known for hacking government websites in Nigeria during the EndSars protests in October last year and Police department websites in the United States during the Black Lives Matter protests in June last year.
Many Ugandans have viewed the documents online and ascertained that the leaked information actually belongs to government. They’ve come out to thank the hackers for this this rare opportunity.
And others were seen asking where they could access various files to which Anonymousx64 immediately replied with no problem providing download links.
Update: Changes have been made to this article since it was first posted. Corrections were made to statements that stated that Anonymousx64 was a fan account. Anonymousx64 is a collective group of Anonymous not a fan account.
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