Cyber Incident Victim: Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Date:
Apr 2016
Location:
Kenya
Summary
Anonymous In Kenya, a faction of the Anonymous collective, leaked approximately 1TB of non-sensitive documents from the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comprising emails, official correspondence, strategic plans, delegation lists, and procedural manuals. The government acknowledged the breach but emphasized no classified material was compromised, with independent analysis confirming the absence of sensitive data or credentials. The leak formed part of the #OpAfrica campaign targeting alleged corruption and abuses across multiple African nations, involving other hacktivist groups and extending to countries including Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 2 techniques |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On April 27, 2016, the hacker group Anonymous In Kenya, an affiliate of the Anonymous collective, publicly leaked approximately 1TB of data from Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The data dump consisted of 95 files in PDF and DOCX formats, which the group uploaded to a Dark Web server also hosting previous breaches including Staminus, Turkish National Police, and U.S. FBI/DHS data. The Kenyan government acknowledged the intrusion but emphasized that none of the compromised documents carried 'secret' classification. Independent analysis by Softpedia confirmed the absence of sensitive employee information or credentials in the leaked materials. The exposed records contained routine operational documents such as delegation lists, strategic plans, official correspondence, contract renewals, clearance requests, periodic reports, scanned documents, and procedural manuals.
The incident formed part of #OpAfrica, a broader campaign initiated in January 2016 by the World Hacker Team faction of Anonymous targeting multiple African nations. The operation aimed to expose government corruption, child abuse, and child labor across the continent. Prior targets included Tanzania, South Africa, Niger, Uganda, and Rwanda, with parallel activities by groups identifying as LulzSec (non-original) in Nigeria, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Through an IRC channel associated with #OpAfrica, Anonymous announced intentions to expand operations to Burundi, Togo, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Algeria. The Kenyan data release specifically represented the campaign's second phase, focusing on diplomatic communications rather than compromising critical infrastructure or personal data.