According to, Mustapha Mugisa, a forensic specialist with Summit Consulting, a firm based in Uganda’s capital city Kampala, thousands of people in Uganda are losing mobile money in hands of hackers.

He says that hackers and conmen target peasants and other lower end people who use the mobile money services as savings bank accounts yet the telecom companies in Uganda have not taught them basic security precautions they need to take while using telecoms as bank accounts.

Mugisa says that most of the businesses connected to internet are in danger of being hacked and so there should be wary about the growing cyber fraud. Most times, hackers take advantage of the ignorance of most service providers and clients respectively to hack into company data bases and steal information. However police sources told us that hackers sometimes use people working in respective businesses like mobile telecoms to steal information and steal peoples’ cash.

The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) however warns telecommunications companies in Uganda (MTN, Warid telecom, Airtell telecom, Uganda Telecom, K2 telecom, and Orange telecom) to exercise caution when dealing with mobile money transactions.

The warning follows the rising cases of fraudulent transactions in mobile money services. Many people complain loss of money against telecommunication companies which the telecoms allegedly refuse to refund. Godfrey Mutabazi, the UCC executive director, confirms the development and says many people report cases of sending money using telecom companies not reaching targeted recipients. He also warns Ugandans to guard against the new wave of cybercrimes.

Ends

The post How hackers dig into people’s bank accounts and steal money first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Suspected hackers reportedly based in US have again pulled down Uganda statehouse website. This is not the first time hackers misuse Uganda government websites.

Recently they posted a picture of FDC leader Kizza Besigye seated on a stool in a rather pensive mood on the website of the ministry of works. And no so long ago the suspected hackers post a picture of Adolf Hitler on the statehouse website www.statehouse.go.ug.

A source at statehouse told one of our reporters on Wednesday that the hackers destroyed the system of state house website and it needs repair. When we loaded the statehouse website we found there the following information.

“The State House Uganda website is currently under construction. The website will be launched soon. Thank you.”

The Uganda government intelligence network has been following up suspected international hackers who collude with Ugandans to destroy government websites. Recently the hackers superimposed on the website of the works ministry the following message: “Welcome to Ministry of Hackers and Jobless Ugandans Republic of Uganda.”

The post Hackers again pull down statehouse website first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

We have got news reports that Parliament has pulled down it website www.parliament.go.ug after hackers penetrated into its system. The people in charge of the administration of the parliament website noticed that the hackers were in the process of posting anti president information on the website and they pulled it down.

When we got this information we tried to load the parliament website of www.parliament.go.ug and we found on it the following information.

‘Joomla! Parliament of Uganda website!! This site is temporarily unavailable. Please notify the systems administrator … Could not connect to the database server.’

This is not the first time hackers penetrate and change the information on Uganda government websites. They have been doing it before. Recently website of the Ministry of Works was pulled down after hackers posted a picture of FDC leader Kizza Besigye seated on a stool in a pensive mood.

The image of Besigye stayed on the website for several hours until the authorities in Kampala shut it down.

By Moureen Nakyanzi

The post Parliament pulls down website after hackers penetrates it first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.