By Theo Adebowale
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Hackers are a variant of cybercriminals. They can be innovative, stubborn and desperate. They logged me out of my facebook account last night and have since been marketing their merchandise.
That is the cost we have to pay for civilization and advancement in science and technology. It is the age of impropriety.
To hack facebook account of a common teacher does not seem to me a good decision because financially, we do not have much to throw about. Very few teachers can afford to invest and get double for their capital.
Sabotage is another purpose hackers may want to function. The sabotage of insecurity, economic uncertainty and political discouragement has taken the shine off any other saboteur. But it is a sad development that hackers are getting more deadly by the day.
It is the criminal world. A man was accompanied to a service providers office in Akure. He lodged a report and no sooner had he purchased data than it vanished. A check showed that his son, brother to the one that accompanied him, and his sister-in-law were the data thieves. The social media has become a home, a market place if you like, where many lay an ambush to freaks, who must announce every step they take. Prayer sessions for journey trips are made on the platform and so bad boys take undue advantage of them.
Household enemies and their external collaborators see the social media as a gold mine. Where the enemy without spots a code, household enemies decode. Their tentacles are strong, widespread and expanding. There are speculations that hackers at home have a link with those in the forest. A large network, it covers some security personnel in their individual capacity as criminals. The other day, some hoodlums threatened some settlers to pay a ransom or risk being kidnapped. The report was promptly lodged with the police top brats. Efforts were made to move his subordinates to action, they made it flop. Eventually it was obvious Oga was a member of their network. So a cluster of criminal elements has been built round the social media in Nigeria.
The most sophisticated of the networks is the one that members operate on the highway. They may have economic animals in their company or not but do not be deceived, they are armed with sophisticated weapons. They have been identified by the Federal Government as citizens of Nigeria that may choose to live wherever they will and may upturn the policy of any state government that appears unacceptable to them.
Months ago when Donald J. Trump, ex-President United States of America was claiming that elections had been stolen, the people looked around, asked him how it was and afterwards dismissed his claim as the ranting of an unserious politicians.
They were to discover that he had stolen electoral integrity of America and the unity of the political class. He was going to steal the Presidency from Joe Biden. They steal valuables including life savings. They can steal love, influence, power, authority and even the state. Because of their desperation, they do not give up early. Having lost the election, Donald Trump that should know better, went ahead to sponsor protesters and hoodlums to truncate the process.
But because the process was transparent and free, there was no effect. If the election of Museveni Yoweri of Uganda were subject to forensic diagnosis of Andrew Forty, it would not stand. Vote buyers, torturers, figure manipulators and witch doctors all had a role to play and the cybercriminals must have helped with a befitting packaging.
A package that portrayed a sub ethnic irredentist as a saint to clear the Augean stable of corruption and successfully did that would sustain any power monger in office.
Robert Mugabe, Yoweri Museveni, Paul Kigame came to power at the crucial points in their country’s national development. They have made landmark contributions and would have voluntarily stepped down while the ovation is loudest. Not yet, not with the social media that could help them steal the shows, and steal the country.
It is like the proverbial tortoise being persuaded to leave an occasion but insisting that ‘not until he has been disgraced’. It is the world of hackers. They are within and without, domestic and public. Highly diversified, they are pastors and some are imams. The other day, a former Vice Chancellor attempted to get N350 million of a university account, the attempt was foiled. If that is not hacking, tell us what it is. When the governor of a state claimed they were looking for some N2 billion to settle Fulani herdsmen was it not which account to hack to make an illicit payment.
Who may save us from this generation of hackers?
