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Hacker trial 'first' for Zambia
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An alleged hacker has appeared in court in Zambia in what is believed to be the country's first Internet-related case.
A Zambian resident of the copperbelt town of Kitwe has been charged with unlawfully tampering with the government's official website, in what appears to have been a joke that went badly wrong.
The defendant, Patrick Mukandawire, is accused of going to the website and replacing a picture of Zambia's President Frederick Chiluba with a drawing of him by the country's leading cartoonist.
The site's webmasters quickly discovered the picture swop and traced it to Mr Mukandiriwe.
State officials then arrested him, charging him with "wilful and unlawful tampering" with the site.
When he appeared in the magistrate's court on Monday morning he appeared calm and displayed no emotion.
Mr Mukandawire, faces ten years in jail if found guilty.
This breach in security, although embarrassing for Zambia's Government does not really rank alongside some other "hack attacks".
High profile sites belonging to to the CIA and US Department of Justice sites have been changed by hackers and even computing giant Microsoft has been affected.
In August, hackers gained access to personal e-mail accounts on its free Hotmail service - said to be the Internet's biggest
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10 Sep 99 | Africa |
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A Net gain for Africa? |
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13 Sep 99 | Africa |
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Hackers deface SA stats site |
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