Many Malawi publications have egg on their faces this morning after alleging that government computer system had been hacked by a hacker impersonating President Mutharika who managed to have free access to State House computer Network.
The Nation Publications Limited were the first to carry the story but other Media houses followed suit without doing their own verification first. Social Media was abuzz with the story as well.
The Implied headline was to show the incompetence in the Mutharika government. However the rush to run the story has left these media houses embarrassed and were rightfully lectured by acting Presidential Press Secretary Timpunza Mwansambo.
The Press Secretary challenged not only whether the story was above-board, he appeared to question whether the reporter knew what the word hacking meant?
The acting Presidential Press Secretary Timpunza Mwansambo said:
“The State House computers or emailing systems have not been tampered with and we want to make it clear that the arrested man never used any of the email addresses owned by the State President, His Excellency Arthur Peter Mutharika or any of the state house officers.
We can further state that the arrested man who was impersonating the President was getting money from the victims through the following Bank Account, Robert Seleman, Standard Bank ,Mzuzu branch, Current Account Number 0140020445700 which in anyway does not belong to the State President, the State House or related to the concept of hacking.
It must also be noted here that The IP addresses that the man was using in sending his emails to his victims do not in any way belong to the State House network systems. State House feels very much aggrieved and finds The Nation newspaper article sensational and a misrepresentation of the facts”.
Some have questioned why such reputable Medias could have run with an easily verifiable story without attempting to confirm the details first. Was the motivation to embarrass the Mutharika Government? If it was it has backfired bigtime.
However word of caution to the Mutharika government, do not hold your breath for a retraction or apology. Many Malawi Media houses ever hold themselves accountable to any standards.
