The Zimbabwe National Army is ready to deal with anyone using electronic means to mobilise people to do anything unlawful.
According to the Herald, this was expressed by Zimbabwe National Army Commander Lieutenant-General Philip Valerio Sibanda in an interview.
Lieutenant-General Sibanda also highlighted how the army was training its officers in cyber warfare as a way of preparing for new types of threats against the country.
The statements are the latest communication from the State regarding the government’s readiness to deal with the realities of the digital age.
It’s comfort to know that the army has embraced technology through the adoption of cyber warfare training and strategies, something that will shape the country’s security strategy.
At the same time one major issue highlighted here is the millitary’s involvement in dealing with social media misuse.
Over the past few months online activism has gained a lot of steam as campaigns such as the Evan Mawarire led #ThisFlag movement and the #Tajamuka campaign have inspired civil participation and political protest.
The government’s response so far has been to be issue warnings against the misuse of social media communicated by the telecoms regulator POTRAZ and the Minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira.
Lieutenant-General Sibanda’s statements are the latest in that series of warnings and they also represent’s the security forces’ involvement in dealing with social media led unrest.
image credit – Bulawayo 24
25 comments
Fuck military RULE ! Mugabe must step down
MUGABE MUST GO!!!
You want him out I want him in viva bob
Ndozvatingashandisire masoja izvozvi? Kunzi tipei Manatsa, sungai mbavha, dzingai mbavha, etc? Ok kukamuka Hondo munozodii? Ngatisatyisidzirei vanhu nepasina kukodzera. Teererai. Masoja maakupinda papi ipapa? Indava kurasika mu one room?
There is no other comment, MUGABE MUST GO,
“Lieutenant-General Sibanda also highlighted how the army was training its officers in cyber warfare as a way of preparing for new types of threats against the country.” kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
It’s not so funny when you realise these guys play with the North Koreans. Cyber warfare is one of the few things they are world class in.
Utter bullcrap….Monitor all u want…plus futi u dont have the resources to do that…Zna sucks….plus hatina kudhibha zvekudaro…end to end encryption kumberi….Why is the old man going to war with his people…”you cant fight the future dont waste your time trying!”
Encryption is great when you can get it (mostly for messaging right now), but think about all the wide open facebook walls and twitter feeds out there with ‘incriminating’ posts. When it comes to cyber warfare, the barrier of entry for the domestic and international fronts is vastly different. Surveilling that domestic front doesn’t need billion dollar infrastructure to start. All it needs is a small team of personnel with basic social engineering training and fake socmed accounts working in shifts on basic computers with good internet in a back room somewhere, using the very effective tools on the same social media sites they are targeting to trawl public accounts for ‘subversive’ hashtags and content. Just try searching for #tajamuka on facebook and twitter and see how many ‘offenders’ with traceable profile information or posts you can find! I’m not saying I support what the ZNA is threatening to do, I just think it unwise to dismiss it as bullcrap when we know for a fact the motive exists (power), the relationships exist (N. Korea and China), the low hanging fruit exists (wide open accounts) and the resources, at least for the first wave, exist (computer literate recruits, netbook grade computing power and spreadsheet software or even paper and pen to keep track of who to follow up on).
Dude, in North Korea, the army recruits smart people for cyber warfare. With the retards in our army, I don’t think defending against cyber attacks is possible. Also, what’s there to cyber attack anyway
Training them on how to use whatsapp and post propaganda on facebook.
Is this guy serious? This is the drawback of hiring old madala who hang on to their jobs and a useless defence force that cannot hire the right people. Their webiste right now (https://www.google.co.zw/interstitial?url=http://www.mod.gov.zw/) is infected by malware and they are talking about cyber warfare? What a bunch of idiots.
oh and their website is the Test Apache test page.
??????. I’m sure their logins are “admin” and “password”
If you think that ZNA is not trained on cyber warfare, washout, the drum of cyanide is waiting for you.
You need computers to do that. you need time. You need skill. None of which the ZNA has.Zanu basa nderekungoswero hire all their useless cronies. You are comparing Zanu PF to Kim Jong Un’s government. Un has managed to achieve fission, he makes his own missiles etc. Can the ZDF do any of this? Kim has got one of the largest armies on earth.
Mashaya nyaya #MUGABE MUST GO
Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkiest
?zii zvangu
Do they even knw wat cyber warfare is?
What exactly constitutes as social media misuse, can they clarify?
I’m sharing my comment using my real name because I’m a concerned citizen & I honesty want to know & they’re not being clear, the question I have is that “do they even know what they mean with their own words?” I just want to understand.
This soldier is just doing his job as instructed, I doubt he knows anything about cyber war. He got given some bull to speak and just went through with it. Shame the dictators are manipulative and abusive. Mugabe has failed dismally , and it’s clear for everyone to see. The Zanu PF thugs could not separate partisan,nationalisms, Militarism, policing and broadcasting.
President will not go just because you want him to go,thanks to army commander,we are monitoring your calls day and night no matter what net work, washout!!!!
Nonsense mugabe
You need a site as big as GCHQ to monitor internet n phone traffic on a national scale. This means employing 10000 plus cyber specialist admin staff etc to run the apparatus. Unless they built one with the missing 15 billion, which I doubt. This is jus fear mongering. Besides hakuna magetsi