A group claiming to be part of hacktivist network Anonymous says it has launched a cyber attack on SABC websites.<\/p>\n
The main SABC website as well as other websites belonging to the public broadcaster \u2013 such as that of 5FM and SAFM \u2013 were either unavailable or slow to load on Sunday around midday.<\/p>\n
A Twitter account belonging to a group dubbed Anonymous Africa has claimed responsibility for the downtime.<\/p>\n
Anonymous Africa said it is carrying out the attack in light of alleged censorship at the SABC.<\/p>\n
SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng has controversially moved this year to block the broadcaster from displaying visuals of the burning of public property.<\/p>\n
Motsoeneng has also come under fire for pushing a sunshine news editorial policy at the SABC, which involves showing more good news stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacks against all SABC entities now underway,\u201d said a tweet from Anonymous Africa on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have heard of the Arab Spring? Well now its time for the #African Summer!\u201d Tweeted Anonymous Africa.<\/p>\n
The Twitter account further said on Sunday that it had carried out a \u2018Distributed Denial of Service\u2019 (DDos) attack against the broadcaster.<\/p>\n
This type of cyber attack involves flooding a website server with thousands of requests that eventually disrupt the website.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago on Sunday afternoon said the broadcaster was still looking into the alleged cyber attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to check with the head of IT,\u201d Kganyago told Fin24 when he was contacted for comment on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n The next step in the SABC\u2019s censorship of media<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Communications minister welcomes SABC protest \u2018censorship\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n SABC accused of censoring the DA \u2013 again<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on SABC<\/h3>\n