The Directorate of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Chieftancy of Military Intelligence (CMI), has charged to court a blogger with 4 counts of Unauthorised Modification of computer material, under the Computer Misuse Act.
According to Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, Kasagga Bashir alias Kasagga Matovuwith during the month of August and September 2022, while in Kampala, with requisite intent and knowledge, used his social engineering techniques to create, obtain and modify tweets and screenshots on Twitter handles of the Defence Spokesperson @UPDFspokesperson, Uganda Police Force @PoliceUg, Annita Annet Among @Anita Among and Balaam Barugahare Ateenyi @Balaam 1980 before he allegedly modified the codes to cause the sites to display a string of pictures and words that were abusive and offensive.
“Following months of bragging on social media, he was finally arrested and electronic gadgets which are relevant to the investigation, recovered from him,” said Enanga adding that “The suspect has been the leader of the network of social media abusers. His communication matrix is linked to thousands of group members.”
The police mouthpiece further justifies that the suspect is also linked to selected individuals and political groups, that he said have been glorifying and sponsoring the suspects’ offensive behavior, towards government officials and institutions.
“We have retrieved some of the deceptive posts, charts, accounts, and pictorials, which he has been sharing with 6,588 followers on Twitter and 5,625 Facebook followers,” said Enanga.
Enanga however recommended that the public needs to ensure that individuals and businesses understand the risks and also how to minimize their exposure to cybercrime.
“As the Joint Security Agencies, we have a duty to balance between crime and certain individual rights. Although cybercrimes cannot be eliminated, the risks of abuse can be mitigated through Law enforcement and expensive awareness.”
“We have meanwhile strengthened the Cyber Crime Unit at CID Headquarters, and come out with values ways of raising public awareness about cybercrime, as well as methods of mitigating risks, by pursuing perpetrators of cybercrime,” he added.
