Benedetta Cabitza

Anonymous launched #OpNigeria and stroke down several governmental websites

/in /by

On the morning of the 13th January, Anonymous, Mikolized and Domaineranon launched a  DdoS attack on various government websites. The attack, and its causes, were publicily discussed a few days previously ( January 3rd -4th) on Twitter. Anonymous Nigeria and Domaineranon both listed the Nigerian Government’s faults, which they identified as the causes of the attack.

#Operation Nigeria” seems to be the result of increasing poverty, unemployment, corruption, impunity, poor health care and illiteracy in Nigeria. As posted on Twitter and in several hacker-friendly websites :

“CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA NEEDS TO STOP REALLY QUICK. POVERTY RATE IS INCREASING BECAUSE OF OUR SELFISH POLITICIANS. UNEMPLOYMENT IS BECOMING OUTSTANDING. PUBLIC FUND KEEPS GETTING MISSING WITHOUT TRACE. BILLIONS OF DOLLARS DISAPPEAR WITHOUT TRACE, LACK OF HEALTHCARE, ENVIRONMENT UNDEVELOPED, ILLITERACY. GOVERNMENT MEMBERS THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW”

As published in PasteBin (http://pastebin.com/88NcdPTw), the goverment is responsible for the disappereance of 20 bilion in oil dollars duering 2015, and of 142 billion dollars stolen in the past five years.

The hacktivists stated that the DDoS attack was more than just a warning for the government. In fact, if the situation in Nigeria does not change, critical, confidential data will be leaked. According to their statement, the UNA government must deal with its faults. Anonymous informed them that they exist also in Nigeria and will fight for the freedom of speech and adequate social standards.

This isn’t the first time Anonymous has attacked Nigeria. In 2013, when – as reported by an Irish hacker who claimed to be a part of the group – they took down a governmental website in order to force it to pass a law sentencing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to jail for a maximum of 14 years. And again, in 2012 the Nigerian Assembly website was hacked by LulzSec and Anonymous itself, threatening a massive cyber attack against the government if its demand to end violence against protestors was not met.

Soon after the attack was launched, websites such as that of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria’s Customs Administration, and Nigeria’s National Institute for Legislative Studies all started to fall.

Anonymous has always promoted this sort of worldwide hacktivist crusading for justice.

Just a couple of days ago, Anonymous hacked 14 Thai government websites, in a response to a flawed investigation by the Thai police.