[September 13, 2011] Criminals Hacked Govt Computers Tweet Windhoek, Sep 13, 2011 (New Era/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- International Internet criminals used computers of Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) to access sensitive information on the inner workings of the Namibian government. They also used Namfisa computers to access information on the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) from the National Planning Commission (NPC) computers. The criminals used the Namfisa computer system to access information from various government computers, according to confidential diplomatic cable that a former American Ambassador posted to the US but have been leaked by WikiLeaks. The former American diplomat learnt about the hacking during a meeting with a former chief executive officer of Namfisa, in the first week of April 2009. At that time the Namfisa executive was on suspension and facing a number of charges. The hacking apparently made the American diplomat "nervous", as indicated in her confidential cable to her superiors in the USA, because it exposed the vulnerability of the Namibian government's computers, from attacks inside and outside the Namibian borders. "It is disturbing that Government of the Republic of Namibia systems may be highly vulnerable to cyber attacks within and without Namibia," she wrote in a confidential memo to the US State Department. The hackers were traced up to an internet address in California, USA, just outside Los Angeles. The coincidence of the hacking, along with Swapo Youth League public condemnation of Millennium Challenge Account, had the Namfisa executive guessing the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) was somehow involved in the hacking. The diplomat, however, did not inform Washington that the youth league was likely to have obtained its information directly from National Planning Commission board members. This is because the Swapo Party Youth League mentioned the information discussed at a board meeting. Nevertheless, since the address used was traced to Los Angeles, there were also suspicions of Chinese involvement. The executive further believed that the Namfisa system could be linked to Chinese cyber security incidences reported in the news then. He had found it odd that the Namfisa computer regularly accessed [by an] internet address, which he traced to California, outside Los Angeles, stated the confidential cable. Fuelling the Chinese suspicion was the infamous 2008-cyber attacks on the British and US governments, which had the Chinese government accused of cyber intelligence gathering attack. "In addition to Namibian government documents, several Millennium Challenge Corporation documents reportedly had been downloaded from the NPC director's computer onto the Namfisa system," read the cable. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]