Hackers from the Anonymous collective have hacked a Government Communications and Information Services (GCIS) database as part of “Operation Africa”.

The names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and hashed passwords of some 1,500 government employees were posted online.

This comes after Anonymous released a video announcing it had set its sights on Africa, with South Africa high on the list of targets.

Operation Africa, or #OpAfrica, will focus on the issues of child labour and Internet censorship on the continent, the group said.

“The focus of the operation is a disassembly of corporations and governments that enable and perpetuate corruption on the African continent.”

News of the GCIS hack comes shortly after Softpedia reported that Anonymous had hacked local job portal V-Report.

According to the report, the hackers said they had the private details of over 33,000 job seekers, but chose to only publish the data of government officials.

Softpedia provided the following sample of the leaked data:

The State IT Agency (Sita) and V-Report were asked for comment, but had not replied by the time of publication.

It is understood that the hackers gained access to an old GCIS portal not widely used anymore, which contained outdated information. The vulnerability has been tracked down and closed.

Massive number of South African websites hacked

[Also read: Massive number of South African websites hacked by Anonymous]

In a separate hacking incident, a Twitter user with the handle @TobitowTHA, who claims to be part of Anonymous, stated he had defaced hundreds of South African websites as part of #OpAfrica.

Posting the image below, he said there are 48 million children in the workforce in sub-Saharan Africa, and ended with “Fuck the government” – with an image of the South African flag.

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