OpAfrica continues with data dump from mining corporation

Jun 3, 2016 13:05 GMT  ·  By

In one of its smaller leaks, members of the Anonymous hacker collective have dumped online data that they claim is from a database obtained from Wesizwe, a South African platinum mining corporation.

Hackers only dumped a fraction of the database, but it was the table containing the usernames for the site's CMS, including passwords strings, hashed using the SHA1 algorithm.

Details for 122 users are in the data dump, and for each user, they include their email address, username, full name, password, and account creation and last login dates.

Softpedia attempted to contact Weiszwe and inform the company about the data dump, but its contact form yielded an error on submission and inquiries via telephone were not answered.

This is just one of the recent smaller hacks part of the #OpAfrica Anonymous campaign. Hackers claim that, by dumping various personal details online, they will bring attention and possible economical changes to African countries where children are abused and put to forced labor.

The #OpAfrica campaign had two stages. The first started in February and targeted countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.

The second stage was announced in May and included new targets such as Kenya, Burundi, Togo, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Algeria.

Previously, Anonymous hackers leaked 1TB of documents from Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and basic employee details from the National Oil Corporation of Kenya.

These types of data dumps don't usually bring changes in government policies, but they do bring attention to various issues, even if using wrong and sometimes illegal methods.

Screenshot of the dumped data
Screenshot of the dumped data

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Anonymous attacks Wesizwe mining corporation
Screenshot of the dumped data
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