KAMPALA, March 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Efforts were being made to recover one of the government of Uganda’s social media sites after it was hacked and disabled by anonymous people.
The site, belonging to the Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCICU), was hacked on Tuesday, making it inaccessible to its administrators after hackers took down government information and replaced it with an anti-war message against Russia in its ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
The message read: ‘Dear friends, we together with the Ukrainian TV Channel ‘1+1′ announced an aid fund to support the Ukrainian army against invaders. All money sent to the Ukrainian army relief fund will be given directly to the army. Site: StopWar. Help.’
The development was confirmed by the GCIC deputy director, Duncan Abigaba.
In a short message on Tuesday, Abigaba said: “We are working to regain access. Kindly ignore any uploaded content. We are sorry for the mishap.”
In the war that started late last month, the Russian army and its Ukrainian counterparts have faced off inside the Ukrainian territory for nearly 20 days now, with each side condemning the other for triggering fighting.
Although some countries have openly declared support for Ukraine, the Uganda government has preferred to steer clear of the conflict and recently chose to abstain when a resolution condemning Russia as the aggressor came up for voting at the United Nations security council in New York.
The latest attack on a government of Uganda site is not the first time.
In 2012 several Uganda’s Government websites were hacked and defaced.
The hacksters asserted that their actions were to protest the Ugandan Government’s persecution of the LGBTI community of Uganda.
Among some of the sites that were affected were that of the President and the Government of Uganda. — NNN-AGENCIES
