Anonymous says #RejectFinanceBill

also ft crypto woes

CybAfriqué is the space for news and analysis on cyber, data, and information security on the African continent.

Hi guys, Olatunji here. I’m just “recovering” from Eid-al-Adha celebrations with my family, which by tradition is held in a remote almost off-the-internet village in Kwara State. A man does not step in the same river twice, so I was not expecting the internet to be as I left it… I left #RejectFinanceBill as a meme hashtag and returned to a full-blown occupation protest. Late into the week, Anonymous weighed in on the situation, threatening to release dirty details about lawmakers if they go ahead to pass the bill.

I have a complicated perspective about hacktivism, especially when it comes to popular threat groups like Anonymous, and large movements like the #RejectFinanceBill. Even if you somehow get over the ethical accountability by accepting it as a valid radical movement, they still tend to be largely ineffective to the cause; I still question the effectiveness of Anonymous in Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests years ago.

Anyways, Adebola has more details.

HIGHLIGHTS

Anonymous weighs in on Kenya's tax protests 

The international cyber-hacktivist group, Anonymous has joined aggrieved Kenyan youths in their street demonstrations against the passage of the second reading of the Finance Bill 2024 on Thursday. The hacker organization threatened to divulge the secret misdeeds of government officials in a social media post. 

Anonymous is a decentralized hacktivist group that first appeared on 4chan in the early 2000s, and is popular (and was once listed in Times 100 most influential people) for public-aligning attacks against governments and corporations. In the past, the group has moved against the Russian and Belarusian governments, Israel, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Amazon, Paypal, Syria, the Los Zetas Cartel, the Muslim Brotherhood, Nigeria, Singapore… find the full list on Wikipedia.

The protest in Kenya, marked by a uniform hashtag such as #RejectFinanceBill2024 and #OccupyParliament on social media over the past two weeks has trampled over ‘individual's right to privacy’ according to the Office of Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), as contacts and specific details of the members of Parliament (MPs) have surfaced and are being shared online. 

Some of the provisions of the Finance Bill 2024 which include taxation on household items, income, mobile money transfers etc have been scrapped. Yet, these scrapped items do not seem to be enough for the citizens considering the increasing rise in the cost of goods and services domestically as well as impact of the global inflation on the country's economy. 

Since William Ruto became the president in 2022, several taxes have been introduced to douse the country's debt portfolio of about $80bn (£63bn). This is however expected as tax hikes could stimulate the economy and this move by Ruto has yielded results at the macroeconomic level but Kenyans says it has become unbearable at the micro-level.

Crypto is sus, says African Governments, but is the traditional financial sector any better?

Government suspicion against crypto activities may be reaching its peak in Africa. Over 10 countries on the continent have banned crypto operations with links to national security matters such as money laundering and terrorism financing. They also say it exposes them to cybersecurity issues as hackers push funds clandestinely through the blockchain. 

Despite the several advantages the blockchain offers to citizens, many African governments are working to repress transactions on cryptocurrency platforms - also because it puts a lot of money out of the state financial system.

"While largely recognized as leaders from a cyber maturity standpoint, financial institutions are as vulnerable to steady increase in the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks as any other sector," Akshay Joshi, the Head of Industry and Partnerships at the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity said. 

Two months ago, Zambia’s central bank was penetrated by hackers. In just a year, Angola, Lesotho, South Africa and South Sudan are also amongst countries whose systems have been compromised, threatening citizens' data privacy. 

FEATURES

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HEADLINES 

• ‘For Security Of Transactions’, Flutterwave, EFCC To Establish Cybercrime Centre - Channels TV

• Niger reintroduces prison sentences for “cybercrime” - MFWA 

• Vodacom investigated over 8,000 fraud cases and fired more than 600 employees - IOL

• Police nail 45 suspects in fake SIM crackdown - MyBroadband

• Tunisia CyberShield: New initiative to improve Tunisia's cybersecurity capabilities - Tap

• Africa Data Centres secures $108.9m to expand its capacity in South Africa - Tech Trends KE

• Burkina Faso's BCLCC dismantles large-scale online scam network - Cybersecurity Mag 

ACROSS THE WORLD 

• Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic - Reuters

• F.B.I. Director Makes Rare Visit to Africa as Terrorism Threat Grows - The New York Times 

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