Hackers hit govt, Mana websites

For five days and counting, the official websites of the Malawi Government and Malawi News Agency (Mana) Online Websites have been down due to hacking.

Chikondi Chimala, an official in the Government Information and Communications Unit (Gicu) under the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Culture, said on Tuesday the hacking suspects are believed to be from Turkey operating under the name Turkish Cyber Army.

However, Chimala assured the nation that the websites—www.malawi.gov.mw and www.manaonline.gov.mw­—have backups.

In the case of ManaOnline, he said the most recent backup was done on June 22 and for the others it was June 19; hence, when the websites are restored the data would be recovered.

Said Chimala: “Currently, the E-Government Department is weighing options as to what measures to take as this is becoming a common occurrence. There is, however, assurance that everything is being done to have these websites live again.”

Besides, he said the department is also working on finding long-term solutions to the problem.

In the absence of the websites, the only available online outlets for Mana and Malawi Government are Facebook Pages and Twitter handles.