The telecommunications industry regulator, CCK, is in a mission, an evil mission to read Kenyans emails. According to the story on Businessdaily, CCK, is setting up a system to spy on private emails, citing a rise in cyber security threats since the landing of fiber cables in Kenya three years ago. It is shocking that CCK is out to spend 36.2 million to install Internet traffic monitoring equipment known as the Network Early Warning System (NEWS) to spy on people’s emails.
How is spying on people’s emails going to deal with hacking or other cyber threats in Kenya is beyond my pay grade. Ok, last year there were at least 2000 local Web sites hacked or defaced, including government websites, so people at CCK think that the best people to go after are innocent Kenyan cyber users! SMH
First, I would like to know where the Kenyan networks and ISPs stand on this, after the reported letters from CCK demanding their co-operation in the installation of the so called NEWS. According to Lawyer Paul Muite quoted on BusinessDaily, any spying on people’s mails that is not backed by a specific court order will be in violation of Articles 31 and 34 of the Constitution
I am sure the CCK has lawyers who clearly understand that all laws are subject to the Constitution and that any law such as the Kenya Information and Communication Act that contradicts the Constitution is null and void to the extent of that contradiction,
This is unwarranted interference with the citizens’ right to freely communicate which is highly irregular as it amounts to spying on people without having to account for their actions
It is obvious that the Government needs to invest on its own infrastructure to secure Government websites before wasting money going after the wrong people. The Cyber security threats facing Kenya can not be sorted out by going after innocent Kenyans. Actually majority of the hacking cases so far have been carried out by people from outside Kenya. When 103 Government websites were hacked over night, it was done by an Indonesian hacker known as direxer. The hacker is part of an online Indonesian security forum known as Forum Code Security and he took down the websites following tutorials from the forum. He did not communicate with any Kenyan before doing it, so how is spying on Kenyans emails going to help Government catch direxer?
When Kenyan Prime Bank, Development Bank and CFC Stanbic Bank Websites were hacked, they were hacked by somebody from Rwanda. Majority of Kenyans knew of the hacking after it was posted in one of the Rwandan’s blogs, so how is Spying on Kenyans emails going to help Government catch the Rwandese hacker?
Unfortunately, ITU will fund 30 per cent of the cost of installing the monitoring system…. for heaven sake ,ITU should stop helping the CCK in their evil mission of intruding on People’s privacy
And by the way, what is next after the emails, will the Government go snooping on people’s DMs on Twitter in the name of Cyber Security?
STOPCCK
I think the should consider sacking/spying on the government IT guys who put passwords to access the websites management as “chapati, ujimoto…”
Read between the lines. It is an election year. Govt is well aware of the power of the internet and social media. The plan to ‘monitor’ online activity is just a guise to introduce and Internet Kill Switch through the back door.
Deep into the election period, people have taken to online blogs and social media to voice their opinions against the powers that be, PAP! kill switch is thrown in and we’ll be in the dark.
Now this is why I hate our goverment, why cant they jst learn from their mistakes and get qualified people with current knowledge on spywares and who actually have gone to school to learn how to code, Instead of employing some old guys or underqualified guys to develop their Website.
If I can get a chance I would also do the same, and as far as spyin on emails tht is jst wrong.
I remember when the SOPA thing was goin on, When the US tried to Stop the flow of free information, did they succeed? no they did not, so as far as installing the devices to hack our emails they should be tryn to learn from the mistakes they made.
Morgan