14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, Anonymous hackers launched OpFunKill, a campaign that aims to protest against the killing of animals. The operation was initiated after Dallas Safari Club announced that’s it was auctioning the chance to kill a black rhino in Namibia.
The hacktivists’ main targets are Namibian government websites, and sites related to hunting.
“The trophy hunting of vulnerable and/or endangered big game species in Africa has to stop. For years, this unethical sport and tourism has hidden behind the ridiculous South African laws that allow it,” the hackers noted.
A few hours ago, they announced disrupting Namibia’s main government portal, gov.na. Currently, the website appears to be working properly.
The Dallas Safari Club’s website, biggame.org, was also disrupted earlier today, but at the time of writing, it’s back online.
However, not all targets are related to the Namibian government or hunting. Hackers have breached the systems of The Namibian, despite the fact that the newspaper is independent of the government.
Sensitive information has been taken from the newspaper’s databases and posted online.
Some have announced that all websites hosted on .na, .na.org and .co.na domains would be targeted. This shows that, similar to other Anonymous operations, some participants appear to be going a bit off track from the campaign’s goal.
Meanwhile, The Namibian reports that Namibia’s Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta says that the government is not abandoning the program because it could generate a lot of money for conservation initiatives (as much as $1 million / €730,000).
The deputy minister has told the hackers that no laws are being violated.
“Rhinos are our resources and we not violating any laws. They must just understand that we will continue doing what we are doing and they should also know that with our rhino population, harvesting is part of our programme,” Shifeta said.
Update. The initiators of the OpFunKill operation have made a statement regarding the attacks on websites that have nothing to do with the government or hunting-related organizations.
“Apologies to all for a couple of unofficial targets being attacked in the name of #OpFunKill by one unofficial member going off on his own!”
“We do not attack non related, non governmental, or news sites! All our official targets are valid and justifiable. Do not tag us!”