Uganda Law Society website hack: Wrong target Mr. Anonymous

The Uganda Law Society website has been hacked by Anonymous, a Hacktivist group that has made a name for itself over the past few years, who claim they want to bring to the world's attention to the Uganda government's violations of human rights specifically in relation to some pending anti-gay legislation.

"We have gone to the trouble of compromising the Ugandan Law Society's webserver to bring to your attention, and to the attention of the world, your government's gross breaches of human rights and justice" 

The group had released a statement last year threatening some kind of action against Uganda government's network infrastructure and they have followed through by exploiting a vulnerability in the ULS website's security (which they cheekily pointed out).

Ironically, the target chosen for the first attack happens to be one of those organisations at the forefront of fighting the anti-homosexuality bill that is before the parliament of Uganda. The Uganda Law Society has been on record as being against the anti-gay bill and its members have been quite vocal in the support of activism against the bill.

I am guessing the the social justice hactivists at Anonymous probably saw the name of the organisation and assumed it was a government agency. The fact is that the ULS is an association of lawyers charged with ensuring high levels of professionalism among lawyers in Uganda (granted it was established by an act of parliament but strictly speaking its not a government agency).

I guess that really doesn't matter to the guys at Anonymous. The important thing to them is that their point has been made and they have shown that they are gearing to take on the government of Uganda.

"If nobody else will take action and the government of Uganda refuses to see reason, Anonymous will adopt a scorched earth policy towards Uganda's network infrastructure. They should expect us, for we do not forgive and we do not forget. Your networks are not secure, you cannot protect against us"

Under Anonymous's #OpUganda (which I am guessing means Operation Uganda) the ULS website hack is just the beginning and it seems many more Uganda government websites are going to be targets over the coming months if the list at the end of this press statement is anything to go by.

Judging from what these guys have to say about the internet security of most Uganda government websites this might be these guys'easiest operation yet.