However, MTN Uganda wasn’t the only Twitter account hacked on that day, the Rwanda Defence Forces Twitter account (RwandaDFOC) also had the same content trailing on the same hashtags. This means, whoever attacked the Yello camp is the same creator of the deadly gov’t page takeover with no traces of whether it was an app or just a service using bots to promote its content with only these 2 multinational pages having traces of the incident.

What might have caused the attacks

According to Cybersecurity experts, such attacks only happen when the administrators are either green of advanced security measures or when a former member of the camp trails his past workplace. Either way, access t an administrator’s phone could also have triggered such takeovers resulting in-to the rampant spread of the unsuitable content. Hence, the attack might have happened due to the following incidences that expose such manageable pages to 5star risks.

• Usage of Automation Bots
• Accidental Sign-in to a bot or auto liker
• Cracked Password due to weak online security
• Stolen Phone or leaked admin credentials

All in all, what happened to the MTN Twitter account could happen to your personal or brand profile as well if you don’t keep your security levels in the correct loop. Given the fact that becoming an Influencer is something that requires you to be online 24/7, then knowing your password security and how long a hacker can take to crack becomes your gateway to avoiding such pornographic incidences from ever visiting any of your social media accounts.

The central bank which has so far suffered a massive loss of over $210 million in hacking attempts against banks and telecoms has now directed all payment services to develop new cybersecurity policies to be reviewed this month.

Deemed as a plan to tighten financial security amidst increased cyber attacks, Kenyan banks could be on the right track to save huge chunks of money lost to online criminals.

History of Cyber attacks in the East African region

In 2009, Uganda created the National Information Technology authority (NIRA) to oversee and regulation information technology services. However much, Kenya and Tanzania have just woke up from the deep sleep, Hackers robbed a total of $394 million in 2017 alone.

While Kenya lost at least $210 million, Tanzania by $99 million and least followed by Uganda at $89 million. Hackers reaped big from fresh grounds to a sense that Kenya’s central bank now wants fresh new cybersecurity rules implemented.

In the same fashion, the Kenyan national computer emergency response team & co-ordination center has been created to tackle all cyber-related incidents. To clarify the creation of a new cyber body and pull up of new rules, the central bank of Kenya released this statement in support of new measures.

The purpose of this is to create a safer and more secure cyberspace that underpins information system security priorities, to promote stability of the Kenyan payments system sub-sector; establish a co-ordinated approach to the prevention and combating of cybercrime

The progress of Kenya’s protection of critical data

Kenya hopes to improve the identification and protection of critical information in order to maintain public trust in the national payments system according to CBK. However, with new Cybersecurity rules to be implemented, the officials claimed this is an extra step in tackling all cyber-related crime with financial institutions developing new modules for this.

The board of directors and senior management of payments service providing institutions are expected to formulate and implement cybersecurity strategies, policies, procedures, guidelines and set minimum standards set for the institution. All these must be documented and made available for review by external auditors and CBK

As Cyber attacks continue to evolve in East Africa & Africa generally. A cross-country conference will be held in Kampala next month to tackle all cyber-related issues concerning the region. Although Kenya is now applauding its official steps towards the hard to locate hackers, the conference will be a common ground to tackle all cyber loopholes.

It’s to be noted that earlier last month Uganda pulled off a suicidal move on social media. Even though many users bypass it with multiple VPNs, OTT tax is a gradual move to eliminate hackers in the overall equation in relation to Kenya’s move. Nevertheless, Banks and Telecoms like Safaricom now have less than a month to conquer their fears with new cyber rules by CBK.

Most websites suffer from denial of service attacks though majority sympathize with the attackers. Given the rate of smartphone and computer usage today. Many attacks have popped in as attackers target your precious data. just like the 2017 bad ransomware was aimed at soliciting bitcoins from victims. The latest DDOS attack on Github may expose your open source software and apps to backdoors that can be used to take you down.

What are DDOS attacks?

Distributed denial of service attacks are a series of online attacks initiated by the so-called black hat hackers. Being a complicated form of attack, many users may not know what the attack is actually capable of. Though IT experts and software engineers spend sleepless nights debugging and developing new apps and software updates. A single DDOS attack can destroy or even alter all information hosted by the attacked victim.

A DDOS attack acts in a way that, a hacker initiates series of code and pings a given server in order to disrupt access by other users. But then, public websites and software companies are always vulnerable to these attacks.Although with the strict firewall rules installed and policies by websites, protection of users and apps has become a rhythm to listen to.

About Github’s DDoS attack

However with the largest and latest DDoS on Github which is more of an open source web-based hosting service where developers can access given software and apps. Your app updates could be vulnerable to any injected code distributed on the website. Just like many 3rd party websites provide you with free software links and app updates. The attack on Github may open backdoors in your software or apps where hackers can actually tap into your personal or private information.

Github is that one open source hosting website where a majority of the free apps and software have a part of their files stored. Results from the recent DDOS attack may not be sighted as per now but regrettable in the future as attackers may opt to alter apps and software to their own tune.

A few years ago, the Linux community which is the biggest open source innovation suffered similar proceedings that may result from this Github attack. Linux mint which is one of the most used open operating systems 2nd to Ubuntu was attacked to the extent that everyone who downloaded the new updated system image would have their information phished.

How the attack happened

According to Github, the Chinese government is believed to have been behind the 2015 attack that lasted for 5 days. Differing from the most recent attack that lasted for less than 10mins. The Open source application hosting platform claims attackers used its mem caching system to take down the website.

While many users may find the attacks complicated, the DDOS attack on Github ca easily expose any user’s private information just in case a few open source codes were tampered with. Therefore, as the site fully recovered from the incident it’s never too late to spend on store upgrades as to stay secure with open source software and apps.