Hackers target another SA site
2005-10-11 10:31
Cape Town - Less than 24 hours after a Chilean group hacked the government's website, a second group made a mess of another local site.
The Iranian group, who call themselves Babol Hackers Security Team (BHS-Team) hacked the website of www.migec.gov.za, which provides
information about the municipal infrastructure grants in the Eastern Cape.
The following message was posted on the website: Hacked by bhs-team , popo was here ! just for fun ;) Sorry admin !"
The hackers provided a link to their own website and even put their e-mail address on the hacked site. By late afternoon, the damage had not yet been repaired.
In the past, the group had hacked the government sites of among others China, Argentina and Madagascar.
The attack followed close on the heels of a group named byond-team, who hacked the government's website www.gov.za early on Sunday.
The web portal was out of action for hours and several sub-websites belonging to other state departments were also influenced.
Stefan Visagie, an IT-manager at Buys Incorporated Attorneys, a legal firm specialising in internet and media law, said it seemed as if the hackers managed to break into one of the government's important webservers and undermined all the related websites.
Reinhardt Buys, of the same firm, said such attacks were illegal, but the government was virtually unable to prosecute the hackers.
The government could only take action if the suspects were in South Africa.
The hackers would have to be identified in order for the governments of Chili and Iran to hand them over, Buys said.
Joel Netshitenzhe, the government's communication chief, said he was still waiting for a report on the attack on the government website before he could comment.