JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The ZimLive website is back up after a significant distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
The website was inaccessible for several hours as it came under a severe cyber attack, which appeared to originate from China.
Cybersecurity expert Lazarus Mudukuti, who worked to mitigate the attack, said: “The attack originated from multiple nodes in China and Zimbabwe, overwhelming the site’s servers and making it inaccessible to users.”
The attack appeared aimed at suppressing credible news distribution within Zimbabwe, editor Mduduzi Mathuthu said.
“For years, the Zimbabwean government has been attempting to control and limit access to reliable news sources for its citizens. This latest attack on ZimLive.com followed the publication of articles featuring verified information on government corruption and human rights abuses,” Mathuthu said.
“We have been releasing video and photographic evidence implicating government operatives in the abduction and torture of opposition activists. We also published detailed reports on high-level corruption in which senior government officials were caught embezzling public funds for personal gain.”
Mudukuti, a cybersecurity expert with experience from Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and the United States, said the website had been targeted in a “coordinated DDoS attack.”
“The first step was to identify the source and nature of the attack. After confirming the DDoS assault, we migrated ZimLive.com to a new hosting provider. To further shield the site, we implemented a new public IP address and a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with DDoS protection, effectively throttling the malicious traffic targeting the website,” he said.
To secure the website, he also performed a thorough scan of the site, identifying and removing malicious files placed by the attackers.
“Using advanced malware removal software, we ensured the integrity of ZimLive.com’s digital environment. We also addressed known vulnerabilities in the site’s content management system (CMS), applying necessary patches to bolster its defenses,” he added.
Mudukuti is no stranger to Zimbabwe’s digital landscape, having designed one of the earliest independent news websites in Zimbabwe – NewZimbabwe.com in 2002.
In 2006, he launched one of the country’s first e-commerce platforms, Zimbuyer.com, marking him as a trailblazer in the region’s digital commerce.
Currently based in the USA, Mudukuti works as a Senior Cloud Cybersecurity Engineer Consultant helping financial and health services companies to secure and improve their security posture.
