South Africa Military secrets stolen

The hack began on Sunday and ended yesterday. Sensitive tender information was stolen from Armscor computers and hidden in the internet's dark web.

The dark web is part of the World Wide Web but special software and expertise is needed to gain access to it. It is often used by criminals.

Armscor's objective, says its website, is to meet the needs of the defence force for equipment and technology, research, development, analysis, testing and evaluation.

The hacktivist group Anonymous posted pictures of its logo, a Guy Fawkes mask, on several Armscor internal computer systems.

Anonymous is an online activist group targeting governments and organisations it alleges are corrupt.

It has been suggested that the Anonymous hack attack on Armscor centres on the parastatal's involvement in the multimillion-rand leasing of a new jet for President Jacob Zuma, and its role in multibillion-rand arms procurement deals.

Armscor said the hack was "not serious".

Anonymous recently crashed the online presence of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party after the government shut the country's internet access because of protests about public servants' pay and import restrictions.

The Armscor information was taken from its settlement and invoicing systems.

It relates to payments to international and local military manufacturing companies, such as Denel, Thales and Airbus.

According to an interview with Anonymous by Hackread.com, hackers stole passwords and identity details of nearly 20000 Armscor suppliers, which can be used to allow people to represent themselves as suppliers or Armscor managers and log into Armscor systems.

The breach is, say cyber crime security experts, a sign of the increased sophistication of online attacks in South Africa.