South Africa’s intelligence minister Ayanda Dlodlo and her deputy Mr. Zizi kodwa’s phone was cloned by hackers. The cloning was discovered when several individuals received text messages which were supposedly from Mr. Kodwa.
Similarly, phones belonging to several other intelligence officials were cloned . Investigators are trying to look into how it happened.
What is cloning?
To clone is to make an identical copy of something else. Therefore, phone cloning is a technique used whereby the secured data from one cell phone is transferred into another phone.
In this case, the other phone becomes the replica of the original cell phone.
In most cases, cloning is illegal. Hackers do this sometimes to blackmail people and con them.
South Africa’s intelligence minister privacy breach.
Both the intelligence minister and her deputy, had their privacy invaded. consequently this caused a sense of technical insecurity among the citizens.
If phones belonging to top government officials can be hacked, what of that of a mere citizen. The citizens fear for their invasion of privacy. They urge the government to look into the matter and catch the criminal.
South Africa’s security agency broken into.
The hacking comes a few weeks after the state security agency’s headquarters in the capital was broken into.
The Robbers walked into a safe at the office. They left with classified documents and an Undisclosed amount of money in local and foreign currency.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had his emails hacked. The emails that related to an election campaign were hacked and leaked in a security breach last year.
What is hacking?
Hacking is the practice of unauthorized access to a system. With intention of either to steal information or money. Hacking leads to prison time and fines. In November 2013 a member of a hacking group got convicted. He broke into the computer service of a string of corporations, government agencies and law enforcement advocacy groups.
He had allegedly stolen credit card numbers, emails, and other data from the websites of the CIA and private intelligence firms.
In August 2013, Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic documents and military records to WikiLeaks. This is the largest publisher of classified information in the world. It was the largest set of classified documents ever leaked to the public.
Therefore, depending on the circumstances of the case computer hacking can be charged as a misdemeanor conviction or a felony.
Consequently, a misdemeanor conviction is punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of 100 thousand dollars. While a felony conviction is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 250 thousand dollars.
In conclusion, hacking and cloning are very serious offenses. They pry into one’s privacy. They can also be perceived as a cyber-attack.
Be sure not to be caught on the wrong side of the law, but if you have, make sure to get a good defense attorney to help your case.
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