Zimbabwe's ICT minister, Nelson Chamisa, says the country is making efforts to tighten security on its government Web sites to prevent cyber attacks.
This comes after the Zimbabwean government Web sites were hit by distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks that rendered them unavailable last week.
In one instance, a defaced finance ministry Web site displayed a message posted by a group of hackers, which identified itself as 'Anonymous'.
DDOS attacks attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of an attack generally consists of the concerted efforts of hackers to prevent a Web site from functioning efficiently temporarily or indefinitely. Such attacks are a criminal offence in many countries around the world.
Chamisa says the hacked Web sites have since been restored. Yesterday he told the media thatgovernment was probing the matter further. "We are dealing with it," he said, adding that cyber security was on the front burner of the government work programme.
Following the incident, Zimbabwe attorney general, Johannes Tomana, has formed a commission to investigate the WikiLeaks cables saga, to bring charges of treason against anyone found to be colluding with 'aggressive' foreign governments.
According to media reports, the attacks came after president Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace, sued a local newspaper for $15 million for publishing a WikiLeaks cable that linked her with the alleged trade in illicit diamonds, and Zimbabwe considered treason charges against the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, over talks with US diplomats revealed by WikiLeaks.
According to these reports, Anonymous said it was targeting Mugabe and his regime “who have outlawed free press and threatened to sue anyone publishing WikiLeaks”.
Zimbabwe has experienced several attacks in the past. In 2009, the government Web site went offline and was replaced by a server advert from computer giant Microsoft. Since then, the Zimbabwean intelligence officials vowed to investigate this kind of security threats.
Meanwhile, today the BBC reported that key Web sites of the Tunisian government have also been taken offline by a group that recently attacked sites and services perceived to be anti-WikiLeaks.
Web sites belonging to the Ministry of Industry and the Tunisian Stock Exchange were among seven targeted by the Anonymous group since Monday, it reported.
Other sites have been defaced for what the group calls "an outrageous level of censorship" in the country.
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