Zec yesterday said it would report the data analysts to the
police for violating data protection laws and hacking into its website.
The accusation comes after Team Pachedu said there were
several “security loopholes” on Zec’s website such as unsecure administration
login details, among others.
“If someone has the capacity to access information that
does not appear on the homepage of the website, what is it?” Zec spokesperson
Jasper Mangwana told NewsDay yesterday.
“Is it not hacking? We are not very sure of why they had to
dig into information on our website. It is not about being exposed. We are
worried about the means they use to obtain the information.
“We do not know how they intend to use that information. We
do not know the profile of Team Pachedu, who they are, whether they are
registered or not for us to engage them. We will not agree to meet a faceless
group. To achieve what?”
Team Pachedu said the IT loopholes were so gross that they
could be identified by “anyone” browsing on the internet.
“There are serious security loopholes in Zec IT systems,
which are accessible to anyone browsing on the internet. For instance, the
critical folders that run the website ./wp-includes and ./wp-content were left
unsecured. We found five people managing the insecure Zec website,” said Team
Pachedu.
The data analysts told NewsDay that Zec was mistaking its
exposure as a hack.
“The fact that they call it hacking exposes their
weaknesses in IT expertise. There was no hack!” Team Pachedu argued.
The data analysts also insisted that they were a legitimate
group, although Zec refused to meet them.
“We don't operate in the shadows. Recently, we invited Zec
to a roundtable debate and to tour Zimbabwe showing Zec, along with
journalists, the evidence of illegal double voters that we found during our
five-month fieldwork audit. Zec refused to meet us face-to-face.”
Team Pachedu has been exposing serious anomalies on the
voters roll.
The irregularities include the alleged movement of 170 000
voters from their constituencies and wards and creation of additional polling
stations under unclear circumstances.
Zec has been accused of purportedly tampering with the
voters roll to “rig” the 2023 elections in favour of the ruling Zanu PF party,
but Zec has denied the allegations. Newsday
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