Hacktivists breach server, get access to site's admin panel

Feb 15, 2016 00:00 GMT  ·  By

Members of the World Hacker Team, one of Anonymous' subdivisions, have breached South Africa's Department of Water Affairs (DWA) as part of the group's #OpAfrica and #OpMonsanto campaigns.

#OpAfrica is an Anonymous social campaign launched to highlight the situation of child labor and government corruption in African countries.

The campaign started a few weeks back, and the hacktivists involved in the campaign have taken aim at Rwanda, Uganda, and multiple targets in South Africa. Their most recent campaign, before this incident, involved the mass defacement of 2,532 websites running on the servers of Webafrica, a local Web hosting provider.

This time around, the hackers have targeted another government institution, namely the official website of the Department of Water Affairs.

Hackers of the World Hacker Team have breached the site's database, stolen all its data and dumped it online. The leaked data includes real names, emails, and ID numbers of over 5,800 government employees and collaborators.

For some of these persons, not all, the leaked data also includes phone numbers, birth dates, addresses, departments where they work, job titles, and even hashed passwords.

Hacktivists have also managed to get access to the site's administration panel, where they had access to change user details, the site's content, information on various government projects, and even statistical and historical data regarding water quality measurements from multiple water supply stations.

South Africa Department of Water Affairs admin panel
South Africa Department of Water Affairs admin panel

South Africa Department of Water Affairs Hack (18 Images)

South Africa Department of Water Affairs admin panel
South Africa Department of Water Affairs admin panelSouth Africa Department of Water Affairs admin panel
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