January 24 – The Confederation of African Football has taken action to protect its website after it was hacked by a Russian group protesting at the African Cup of Nations being staged in Gabon where President Ali Bongo Ondimba retained power in disputed and violent elections last year.The Associated Press said it received an email claiming a group calling itself New World Hackers had “taken down” the website of African football’s governing body while a member of the group told the BBC that Gabon was “a country of dictatorship.”
The website was inoperative for around five hours on Saturday, at first suggesting there was a technical fault.
CAF say they now have added a five-second process that screens all visitors. “CAF has taken action but we can’t certify 100% it will not happen again,” Junior Binyam, the governing body’s communications director, told the BBC .
Gabon, the first hosts to be eliminated for 23 years, are hosting AFCON for the second time in five years, having co-hosted with neighbouring Equatorial Guinea in 2012. It was selected this time as a replacement for war-torn Libya.
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