Politicians are said to be hiring hackers to take down articles linking them to corruption, gross misconduct or court cases
A report by a local newspaper indicate that the race for political seats in 2022 has pushed some aspirants to hire hackers in the hopes of erasing bad image online.
According to the Daily Nation, DCI is on a high alert as such constitutes cyber crime.
The rush has also been due to the increased scrutiny of would-be civil servants during interviews where online source memorandums come up.
Some communications consultants are hot cakes in this market; as they are engaged by said politicians.
One would not get cleared by the DCI to be given a Certificate of Good Conduct or get a clearance from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) if their record is tarnished and that’s where most aspirants dream ends. Most rogue Rogue politicians are reportedly hiring hackers to even hack the files of DCI, Judiciary and mainstream news organizations.
The paper reports that he stakes are so high such that personalities part with bribes of between Sh200,000 and Sh2 million.
A politicians from Mount Kenya region used over Sh3.5 million to have some articles pulled down. Bloggers Bloggers too have not been spared.
Some are taken to court where demand letters are issued and if they are successfully sued, the court orders them to pull down articles. There are 4 ways to remove content online: First, ask hackers to do it
Secondly, negotiate with the publisher to pull it down
Thirdly, write to Google search engine to remove
Fourthly, go to court and get an injunction against the news organization to have the damning content deleted.
However, the above is a tricky venture and some take very long to materialize.