Econet takes Zim websites offline after hacking incident

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Econet Broadband site down

Yesterday evening we reported that the Econet Broadband website www.econetbroadband.co.zw had been hacked. The website stayed pretty much the same much for most the night but it was down when we tried it this morning.

Econet Broadband site down

In addition to the broadband website, Econet has taken down the main Econet website www.econet.co.zw, and the Ecolife website www.ecolife.co.zw. The strategy is what everyone would expect: take everything down and lock it all down. Econet’s Investor Center website and the Ecoweb SqurrielMail webmail site are both still up though.

The impact of a website being down in an economy like Zimbabwe is not as much as it is elsewhere in digital economies. Otherwise, how would you explain Telecel having their website with the “under construction” sign for almost a year now? Business is mostly still carried out offline here.

We have sought Econet’s official comment.

10 comments

  1. Linx

    Haven’t you guys got hold of the other hacking story,in which a code was circulated among Econet subscribers and once you entered the code you could put a figure for any amount of airtime you want and your account would be recharged. It happened on Thursday and all Econet subscribers who did that where subsequently blocked yesterday on Friday. I guess thats why their recharge system was down for the better part of yesterday.

  2. chris

    and blocking subrcribers is not the best of solutions these days with lines readily available on the market. what it basically means is that they are preparesd to loose some customers because of their carelessness. I have already switched over to telecel. If I need to use econet i would just have to spare US$1. They should just activate those blocked subscribers and make arrengements to recover their lost revenue.

  3. Mhunhu

    Now I am in support of registration of lines, and those thieving criminals should be brought to book. In face of this situation POTRAZ should bring forward the line registration deadline. It’s not Econet only who lost revenue, but POTRAZ and ZIMRA….

  4. JamesM

    Websites do get hacked and that’s the reality of life online. What measures if any did our beloved Econet have in place for tracking down hackers or detecting network intrusions? Seems likely they were caught napping!

    1. Donavan Mandez

       yeah dude but not for three days or even more than two hours is  a loss

  5. Munhu

    you might also need to take into consideration the ISP. That where it all started, How did the hacker manage to get into the server ?

  6. Shame

    Econet prides it self on inspiration and leadership….Why don’t they lead by example. As a big organisation they should apply security especially that they host critical infrastructure and information. Where in this world would an ISP have poor web security processes. Its time they look into employing and implementing security because its going to be the trend in the next 12-20 years for targeted hacking and Econet as a big coporate should be aware of this basic rule.
    I am shocked though I know its not only econet but they are other big wigs esp banks who are like open graves and highly insecure.

  7. Joe Black

    Econet is its own ISP, using the Ecoweb brand.

  8. Frank Katsande

    I believe this is also the time to start debating about a digital mobile number directory. The legal aspects should be dealt with by POTRAZ and this directory be available upon subscription but should be handy to organisations like ZRP and other security services.

    Lets think ahead. Financially econet might have not suffered a lot of damage and better still they can trace it backwards.

    Come on Guys these are some of the dangers of digitalisation but life must go on.

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