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Anonymous hacker collective attacks on SL: Expert rings alarm bells

20 Apr 2022

With the Anonymous Hacker Collective launching a cyber attack on Sri Lanka, experts are sounding the alarm, opining that the group’s involvement is misguided and can cause serious repercussions to Sri Lankan society. Speaking to The Morning, Cyber Security Advisor and Educator Asela Waidyalankara asserted: “You’re basically asking hackers with criminalistic elements to come and intervene in our cyber systems. Where I stand as a cyber security professional, I think it is a bad move,” Waidyalankara detailed that Sri Lanka has an incredibly fragile e-Government system which is not maintained to optimum levels. He explained that once these independent hacker elements come into the picture, the possibility of certain individuals launching cyber attacks with malicious intentions for their own commercial gain may take place. “The data of people is at risk. For example, they have targeted eChanneling as well. Just imagine what would happen if your entire patient and channelling history is exposed in a public data dump? For example, if someone is meeting a psychiatrist, they might not want this personal information exposed,” he told The Morning. Another risk factor as pointed out by Waidyalankara is that an entire plethora of information can come out as a direct or indirect result of hacker intervention. “From banking details to your personal credit card information, all of this is at stake of being exposed,” he detailed. In terms of what steps the public can take to protect their information, Waidyalankara advised that if any persons have credentials with the e-Government system, passwords and login details should be updated.  However, he added that if that data is already stored in compromised systems, especially personally identifiable information, hackers may be able to use the same for fraud, manipulation, or even sell them on the dark web for monetary gain. According to Waidyalankara, the repercussions of the events taking place currently will only be seen in the future. Anonymous is a decentralised international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology. According to the collective’s official twitter page, “#OpSriLanka” has been launched, against the Government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.


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