Iteitei Lya Kitee
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 2, 2008
- 586
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Concern as hackers mess up crucial websites By Al-amani Mutarubukwa
The Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has become the latest casualty in a growing trend in which hackers mess up with websites.
Users of the popular NBS website could not access it since on Wednesday, following an invasion by hackers calling themselves the UAH-Crew.
The website was effectively shut down for repairs yesterday by the Tanzania Telecommunication Company which hosts it, according to the NBS acting director, Ms Radegunda Maro.
The NBS joins other public outfits including Parliament, Tanzanian Revenue Authority and Bank of Tanzania whose websites suffered similarly in the past, triggering questions on the safety of national data and statistics.
Ms Maro told The Citizen that problems started last Friday with the bureau experiencing difficulties in accessing the Internet.
However, she maintained that a great deal of the NBS materials have been published in books and journals. Ms Maro, however, admitted that the bureau would incur financial losses following the hacking.
Mr Gregory Gwasa, a third year student at Ardhi University pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Building Economics, said he noticed the problem yesterday morning as he surfed for information available at the NBS website.
Among other records, the NBS website carries the annual and monthly reports on the performance of sectors such as agricultural, education, infrastructure and manufacturing. From it one can also access information on population projections.
Experts see the problem of website hackers that is escalating worldwide as a threat to nations including Tanzania.
"Even if the problem is solved by reorganising a website that has been messed up, chances are that it may fail to retrieve all the data except that which had been saved in the backup systems," said Mr Zakie Chatanda, a web designer with a publishing company in Dar es Salaam.
Mr Chatanda said the hackers were tampering with security codes of the websites just like those who synthesise computer viruses.
"Such people are very smart; depending on the strength of the protecting programme that one is using, there are many programmes that come with different safeguard functions," he said.
These comments were echoed by Mr Samir Habib, the Computer Centre-Tanzania Ltd general manager, who said the government must seek the service of well-qualified technical hands to design and protect its websites.
"Hackers are evolving each day, you need to have a multiple layer of security system, both software and hardware, no matter how costly they might be; otherwise important institutions like banks and government departments are at risk of losing crucial information,"said Mr Habib.
Hacking in Tanzania is becoming a trend due to crooked entrepreneurs who tamper with websites in order to create a demand for software in the market
The Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has become the latest casualty in a growing trend in which hackers mess up with websites.
Users of the popular NBS website could not access it since on Wednesday, following an invasion by hackers calling themselves the UAH-Crew.
The website was effectively shut down for repairs yesterday by the Tanzania Telecommunication Company which hosts it, according to the NBS acting director, Ms Radegunda Maro.
The NBS joins other public outfits including Parliament, Tanzanian Revenue Authority and Bank of Tanzania whose websites suffered similarly in the past, triggering questions on the safety of national data and statistics.
Ms Maro told The Citizen that problems started last Friday with the bureau experiencing difficulties in accessing the Internet.
However, she maintained that a great deal of the NBS materials have been published in books and journals. Ms Maro, however, admitted that the bureau would incur financial losses following the hacking.
Mr Gregory Gwasa, a third year student at Ardhi University pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Building Economics, said he noticed the problem yesterday morning as he surfed for information available at the NBS website.
Among other records, the NBS website carries the annual and monthly reports on the performance of sectors such as agricultural, education, infrastructure and manufacturing. From it one can also access information on population projections.
Experts see the problem of website hackers that is escalating worldwide as a threat to nations including Tanzania.
"Even if the problem is solved by reorganising a website that has been messed up, chances are that it may fail to retrieve all the data except that which had been saved in the backup systems," said Mr Zakie Chatanda, a web designer with a publishing company in Dar es Salaam.
Mr Chatanda said the hackers were tampering with security codes of the websites just like those who synthesise computer viruses.
"Such people are very smart; depending on the strength of the protecting programme that one is using, there are many programmes that come with different safeguard functions," he said.
These comments were echoed by Mr Samir Habib, the Computer Centre-Tanzania Ltd general manager, who said the government must seek the service of well-qualified technical hands to design and protect its websites.
"Hackers are evolving each day, you need to have a multiple layer of security system, both software and hardware, no matter how costly they might be; otherwise important institutions like banks and government departments are at risk of losing crucial information,"said Mr Habib.
Hacking in Tanzania is becoming a trend due to crooked entrepreneurs who tamper with websites in order to create a demand for software in the market
