'That's just stupid': Hackers attack Umbilo community group website

An Umbilo community-funded information website was hacked by a group which calls itself an elite hacker group with the mission to “combat the oppressive control of the government”. 

The owner of the website, which provides information to uplift communities, described the hack attack as “most bizarre”. 

The hackers, who describe themselves as the Seelyst, deleted the entire website and left a message saying they are an elite hacker group, a silent force that operates in the shadows. 

“Our mission: to combat the oppressive control of the government, the media, and any system that takes advantage of collective ignorance to maintain corruption at its peak.

“We are the eyes that see what the rest of the world does not want to see. The minds that decipher what is hidden.

“Our purpose goes beyond simple criticism; we are agents of the apocalypse, attacking where it hurts most: the heart of manipulation and the distorted truth that is imposed on the people,” read the message on the home page of the Umbilo website.

A communication specialist and host of the website Jonathan Erasmus said the hackers deleted the entire website but it has since been restored. 

“I had it backed up recently. They deleted the entire site, everything gone. But as I said, we thankfully had it backed up, so nothing was lost,” he said. 

“This one was very bizarre. They claim some kind of moral self-righteousness. They say they are going up against the oppressive government. That is a community site that I run. It is a nonprofit company in Umbilo in Durban.”

There was nothing to gain from hacking a community-orientated website which focuses on safety campaigns, he said. 

“If you're going to hack and your plan is the oppressive government, fair enough. When you hack a nonprofit organisation that offers a lot of services, that's just stupid.”

Erasmus, who is also a member of the Umbilo South Association, does a lot of community facilitation and has been involved with more than a dozen of these websites. He helps communities set up websites, set up donations to generate funds and become self-sustainable and roll out their projects. 

“We did have some of the [these] incidents a while ago, and I am wondering if this is part of the same thing.”

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