Friday, March 29, 2024

ZANACO must explain why it released Hakainde Hichilema’s Private and/or Confidential Information

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By Dr. Francis Mubanga(MSc. Network and Communications Management – Information Security,Information Security Advocate)

Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc (ZANACO) must explain the reason why it released Private and/or Confidential Information for Opposition Leader Mr. Hakainde Hichilema.Reference is made to the recent articles concerning the release of Mr. Hakainde Hichilema’s private and/or confidential information concerning his business affairs and his response.

How Government spying agents are supposed to handle private and confidential information

Politically, Zambians have a right to know their politicians’ business affairs through many sources such as Newspapers, TVs, Internet and Others. At the same time Government Spying Agents have a duty (depending on legal limitation) to spy and investigate about anyone but in this case they are limited in their role of releasing spied private information. Their role of releasing this private information (findings) after spying and investigations ends at the specific politicians in Government office (who in this case gave them this assignment).

After this the Government Spying Agents are supposed to advise specific politicians in Government office not to release this private information to the members of the general public. If the Government Spying Agents feel or think that they are chances that the politicians in Government office will release this private information to the members of general public then the Government Spying Agents need to make sure that these politicians in Government office sign the disclaimer. This disclaimer can later be used as defense if these Government Spying Agents are held responsible for that unlawful release of private and confidential information. Most of the time politicians in Government office will sign this disclaimer.

In other words after spying and investigating, these Government Spying Agents’ role is limited to informing and advising the specific politicians in Government office. Thereafter, politicians in Government office make decisions basing on the information spied and investigated on. The decision to release the private and/or confidential information to the members of general public lies on the specific politicians in Government office. This though cannot operate as a shield or protect the Government Spying Agent and other collaborated institutions such as Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc (ZANACO) and others. In fact these Government Spying Agents are supposed to be advocates of Information Security.

The big business of Cyber-espionage

Though Mr. Hakainde Hichilema has responded and claimed to be victimized, we expected him to have even gone further than this and focused more on how he was going to protect and defend private individuals’ private information for all Zambians if he became the President. This was an opportunity were he needed to give Zambians a comprehensive plan on how he was going to handle and protect private information for ordinary Zambians.

Private information has become big business (Cyber- espionage) in developed and emerging countries and therefore Zambians needs to wake up and protect their private information. For example the allegation that the Chinese are being contracted for $5 million in helping the Zambian government with deep packet inspection technology to eavesdrop, mine data, censor and intercept communications (http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2013/02/20/6934340.htm) should make us wake up. Apart from this China is also being accused of cyber-attacks by the U.S.A Government and if these attacks are true then all this is being done possibly for money and this is what Chinese are good at. A report was released by Cyber-security consultant Mandiant (U.S. A. Federal Government Contractor) February 19th, 2013. This report is the most detailed look to date inside the Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA)’s direct involvement in hacking into American government and corporate websites.

The PLA Unit 61398 is identified by the report as the most prolific hacking group inside the Chinese government. Dedicated to infiltrating English-language sites, the unit recruits English-language proficient speakers and experts in computer security, but otherwise scrubs any mention of its organization from Chinese-language websites. Operating out of a 12-story, 130,663 square foot facility in the Pudong New Area sector of Shanghai, its building is able to contain as many as 2,000 personnel. Special high capacity fiber-optics was installed by China Telecom when the building was constructed in 2007 and the outfit utilizes over 1,000 servers.

In this three-year investigation, Mandiant documented Unit 61398 hacking into 141 companies (including 115 in the U.S.) across 20 industries, and stealing many terabytes of compressed data in sustained attacks averaging 356 days. The longest persistent attack documented by Mandiant lasted 4 years and 10 months. The largest recorded theft was 6.5 terabytes from a single company over 10 months. China has denied these allegations though (U.S. News, 2013).

China having a record or history of cyber-attacks at least has money to defend itself if taken to task or Court for damages. In case of Zambia, Zambian Government has no money or luxury to start defending itself over cyber-attacks it is trying to initiate or implement through telecom companies registered with Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) as alleged. If these cyber-attacks are implemented or go on, all these companies registered with ZICTA and associated with these cyber-attacks will be lined up for legal suits. Not only will they face legal suits but also see their stock prices falling in the international financial markets quickly.

Government Spying Agents needs to know that their roles are very important when it comes to information security. They need to step up to the politicians in Government office and advice on the dangers of awarding a contract of $5 million to a Chinese company when China has a record and history of cyber-attacks to other nations. What makes us trust this Chinese company with our private information? Absolutely nobody wants his or her private information be in the hands of the Chinese company.

Instead of awarding $5 million contract to the Chinese for Cyber-attacks on Zambians, Government needs to focus on protecting Government networks and information for all Zambians through creation of employment for young Zambians in information security and other related areas. This way we are not only going to take care of our own networks and information, we are also going to export the knowledge of information security to our neighboring countries. Developing countries in Eastern Europe in the same situation like Zambia is economically are profiting from computer research and information security knowledge by exporting it to the same China and developed countries. Why can’t Zambia do the same? We have a lot of young talented educated Zambians who can be trained to the level of the same Chinese in information security in short time.

Sueing ZANACO

Coming to ZANACO, ZANACO has no authority to release Mr. Hakainde Hichilema’s private and/or confidential information unless requested by Court Order or other laws such as Money Laundering laws and that is if Mr. Hichilema is being suspected of Money Laundering or other criminal activities. In this case no Money Laundering activities have been uncovered. ZANACO is now supposed to write to Mr. Hakainde Hichilema to explain the circumstances without even Mr. Hakainde Hichilema requesting for the explanation. If ZANACO does nothing Mr. Hakainde Hichilema can now choose to see a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) or lawyer on the way forward.

Once again a Public Listed Company (Plc) such as ZANACO should not allow itself falling in the trap of politics or politicians. Instead it should or come up with universal standards of handling private information of clients adopted by peer international banks. We have not forgotten how by then the same ZANACO owned by Government fell into similar trap when politicians took advantage of it during late former President FTJ Chiluba’s Government. Politicians in Government used Government Spying Agent to launder cash from ZANACO – ZAMTROP A/C (Lusaka and London) until this activity was uncovered (http://www.solicitorstribunal.org.uk/Content/documents/9575-2005%20-%20Meer.pdf).
Now that ZANACO is in private ownership and listed on Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE), it cannot afford to start conducting itself in line with politicians or politicians in Government office without looking at its obligations towards its clients first and implications of its actions. It’s only in Zambia Public Listed companies are being spared by private individuals in terms of legal suits. In developed countries most of these Public Listed companies are being taken to court to pay damages for such actions such as unlawful release of private and/or confidential information through Class Action Suits.

74 COMMENTS

    • The author must shut up for real…poorly written article with serious grammer errors. Is this the reason the author decided not to mention his / her name.? HH knows he is the wrong here…coz the bank can decide to show all trails of his dealings.whose worse at spying…China or the US of A..? Wake up

    • Wrong how? For having money in a bank? Just get your tribesman Sata to submit to a sanity test! only a mad person can distribute someone else’s bank accounts to journalists. It has never been done by any President in Zambia nor anywhere else in the world. There’s something wrong with the person who did it. It is indefensible. And it is very Stu.pid of you to suggest that HH is in the wrong!

    • Ba Big L, the law protects HH, you and me from abuse of privileged information. By law Zanaco cannot take a unilateral decision to release information to anyone. Otherwise, any person with sinister motives can access our bank information. However, if the bank suspects illegal activities on an account, they are obligated by law to bring such to the attention of the appropriate law enforcement agencies. Again, those agency are prohibited by law to divulge such information unless in a court document with the intentions of prosecuting the subject of the information received. Alternatively, law enforcement can obtain a court order so as to access confidential information from banks, etc. This is just to protect everyone.

    • If you read the next five postings it shows how uncouth you first two iddiots are,one wonders when you are going to realise that no matter how much splinter kapimpe is going to oil you to counter words of wisdom,baffikala you have already lost the battle people have decided,satan must not live longer.not another term at least

    • Ba Big L, surely which article were you reading, you cant read that the one above was writen by Dr Francis Mubanga, read before you comment ****** iwe.

    • @1.1 Big L,
      Your grammar and spelling could be worse. There is no such word as ‘grammer’ and how you have used the word ‘whose’ doesn’t make sense, did you mean who’s?
      Secondly, would you be happy to have your account details published without your authority? This trend by the president started when he unlawfully made public Thandiwe Banda’s payslip details. It is wrong.

  1. HH must sue this st.upid bank and people must withdraw every last Ngwee so that it collapses. Tomorrow it will be your ka statement pamwela.

    • As usual…. yaba. The wirter is misleading the readers. He is wel are of the proceedures but chooses to look the other way. I do not like the security agents in Zed but the truth is that no one wakes up and goes to the Bank to demand for info on anyone without just cause. Just to inspect accounts, a person is required to swear an affidavit before the magistrate the court. The purpose of this inspection must be specific and the Bank in question have an upper hand as to what can be or can ot be released. Stop sleeping and wake up Zambians. Stop arguing just for the sake of it.

  2. let hh just sue the bank as first respondent and the govt. as second respondent and spare us this trash for now.
    why is he taking long to act if at all he is agrieved?
    this is his life time chance to embarrass the govt he so much loathe.
    what is he waiting for? jittery… maybe…
    walk the talk man….

    • I thought his party has already demanded to have Sata’s mental status checked? The first step is to establish Sata’s sanity I think!

    • .As Zambians there is nothing wrong in exposing a person who has left most people in Lusnshya living in poverty.HH should tell us why he had lied a year before that Br was worth less than K50billion yet that figure is far less than what he is worth.He should be arrested for giving false information.Secondly he should tell us how he became rich how much money he had to invest when he started his business we are not interested in privacy when need clean leaders

  3. Come to think of it HH is a politician and every time there is an election Mr. HH declares his asserts and liabilities. Expectantly every politician inspiring for the office of the President need to be accountable to the Zambian people. Show how they acquired the asserts and explain where the sources of their wealth. So how is this so called Dr. Dr. Francis Mubanga of Cairo University 100% sure that the source Sata’s information on HH is from ZANACO ? just saying

    • Actually the problem could not be zanaco but the president. This is a case were the law breaker has immunity. The question we should ask ourselves is what can we do when a president abuses his authority and breaks the law? HH can’t sue the president and if he sues zanaco the president should go to court and testify that zanaco were the source of information.

  4. It is mind boggling to find people supporting Sata’s behavior. What he did was bullying. This is a clear example of abusing power. The man is unethical and believes in intimidation.

    • No our President is right how much cabbage information is released to tambe mbwa online.HH should be arrested for deception and money laundering

  5. The irresponsible person in this saga is no other than the President himself. He is using Govt resources and liberties in his political battles with the opposition. Which, by all accounts, amounts to “abuse of office”. Govt spies should be at liberty to “access” any form of information about anyone and at anytime within the Zambian jurisdiction. But this should strictly be for security reasons and the detection of criminality…not to “arm the president” so he can gain mileage on his political opponents. The President should not abuse such privileges when furnished which such intelligence. If anything the whole episode just goes to undermines the Govts claim to “respect human rights” especially in light of the complaint as well as the whole agenda to legislate the SIM card…

  6. I don’t understand why people can’t figure it out.. 1 HH can not and will not sue the bank coz that’s exactly what Sata wants..should hh sue the bank they will expose him hence him keeping quiet. 2. Should hh keep fighting the bank and Sata he will have 2 giants who know what sort of cards hh has thus,its never a win for him,so again its to keep quiet and hope this doent get blown out of proportion. Knowing hh he would have been running his mouth by now if he was innocent.

    • Mature Sata is wise he does somethings to provoke a situation and before you know it the truth comes out..why do u think FTJ dribbled him.? Sata was a threat to FTJ am sure they mmd tried to fix him but failed that should tell you something about the guy in state house…I strongly believe hh is not clean here

    • You say if HH sues the bank, the bank will expose him. If HH has committed a crime that the bank knows about, then it is a crime (complicity) not to expose those criminal activities. The bank would be in trouble too (except under selective prosecution, of course).

  7. Yes HH proceed with a legal suit. 2 banks in Zambia you should not deposit money. ZANACO and Finance Bank. Avoid them at all costs

  8. The author may as well have written the whole article in mandarin as Zambians do not see the importance of piracy….they only learn the hard way..too much docility!!

    • @Jay hahahahahaha yeah man this article lacks substance…he doesn’t know that USA is worse at spying…mandarin would have helped perhaps

    • Big L, please sit down you are now embarrassing yourself. Where does Jay say the article lacks substance? In all your posts you have not made reference to a single point in the article that you disagree with, just your typical political gibberish. Either you haven’t read it or you just don’t understand what has been said.

  9. Government Spying agents do not have a right to spy on anyone’s private information unless the person is committing crimes and there is a court order to obtain such information.

    • Do you need a court order to investigate some one dull chap your man has been exposed who will vote for a man who has reaped us

  10. Let us learn from developed countries for example USA on the Privacy act for Banks. 3402. Access to financial records by Government authorities prohibited; exceptions Except as provided by section 3403(c) or (d), 3413, or 3414 of this title, no Government authority may have access to or obtain copies of, the information contained in the financial records of any customer from a financial institution unless the financial records are reasonably described and —
    (1) such customer has authorized such disclosure in accordance with section 3404 of this title;

  11. (2) such financial records are disclosed in response to an administrative subpoena or summons which meets the requirements of section 3405 of this title;
    (3) such financial records are disclosed in response to a search warrant which meets the requirements of section 3406 of this title;
    (4) such financial records are disclosed in response to a judicial subpoena which meets the requirements of section 3407 of this title; or
    (5) such financial records are disclosed in response to a formal written request which meets the requirements of section 3408 of this title.

  12. The author and other bloggers are forgetting that HH was a presidential candidate in the last election and had to declare his wealthy including his bank accounts. These can be viewed by any citizen of Zambia who request for them. Avoid running for public offices if you want to remain a secret millionaire!

  13. I am not sure whether the information came from the bank and / or through the State Agency. If this is the case the, issue of cyber crime falls off because the information is in the custody off the State which is mandated by the nation to do so when necessary. Again, the bank may not be answerable to their clients were they act on instructions of the State and are obliged just like any other citizen or body corporate. The Head of State Agency reports directly to the State President, hence no need for disclaimer from State Official. How one earns the money may not be an issue unless proven guilty, but underdeclaring his wealthy state or ZRA or any (3) may be. Alarming clients to switch from any bank is not in the interest of the nation because direct victims are innocent bank staff.

  14. I am not sure whether the information came from the bank and / or through the State Agency. If this is the case the, issue of cyber crime falls off because the information is in the custody off the State which is mandated by the nation to do so when necessary. Again, the bank may not be answerable to their clients were they act on instructions of the State and are obliged just like any other citizen or body corporate. The Head of State Agency reports directly to the State President, hence no need for disclaimer from State Official. How one earns the money may not be an issue unless proven guilty, but underdeclaring his wealthy to State or ZRA or any (3) may be. Alarming clients to switch from any bank is not in the interest of the nation because direct victims are innocent bank staff.

  15. Even in America, politician have to declare their assets, if you happen to be a political
    figure, it is a must, to check if you are clean in your up holding the high office, just shut up, you the author of the article

  16. I think sueing ZANACO is unfair. I think they are also in a helpless position. They know very well that this would make them lose clients. Am sure they have already explained the issue to HH. My question though is why ZANACO? Does it mean HH has no account with any other bank in Zambia? Could it be a strategy for HH not oppose the reversal of the sale of ZANACO if it came up at some point since HH has been opposing almost everything?

  17. Mad president indeed.commedy of errors continues.that profesor is prophet.these things are here today.we told you not to vote for this man because he simply doesn’t know what he does.its all sh**tmwana akalila bonzo, bonzo m’pase. Zambians we asked asked for this bafoon so let’s endure alittle while cose around and now he is gunning for the second term nowonder he is victimising potential threats like lubinda and kambwili.watch his space.he is acrazy , st.pid old man.hard luck zambia

  18. SANITY TEST SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE CALLED FOR OTHERWISE YOU ALLOW MAD MEN PRESIDE OVER AFFAIRS OF THE SANE. SANITY TEST. TEST. A QUALIFIED PSYCHOLOGIST INDICATED THAT THE BEHAVIOR BEING EXHIBITED SO FAR DEMANDS THAT A SANITY TEST BE CONDUCTED.

    • no my friend, not a qualified syco… as you put it, but a upnd cadre who has always been against the pf govt.
      do not take him serious has he has a born to chew with the pf govt.

  19. Amazing advice from sharp people! Isn’t HH free to close his accounts and move the money to other banks. But honestly what is $6000 I thought the larger amount was in cattle. And how useful are bank statements without looking at one’s liabilities. The banks can show that you have $70 million but how do they show that you owe other people $80 million…??? If I have a herd of cattle does that mean I have no costs related to keeping the animals?

    • Sir do you know much you need to feed 90 000 herds of cattle in an area where there no adequate rainfall how much was spent to buy those herds of cattle where did he got the money we need to know since he is aspiring for a higher office

  20. HH has to be careful here. The state knows about these laws and it would appear they want to dare him into a legal battle that will reveal damaging information on him. Big businesses have a tendency of having links to illegality.

  21. i have closed my account with ZANACO… They too are the pf supporters and i want to tell all UPND SUPPORTERS to close there bank accounts with ZANACO as a sign to protest against this unresponsiblity.

  22. Chilufyanya,
    How do you declare your assets? Do you think the courts will accept your word that you have K100 million in your accounts? You have to provide bank statements and these become public records when you are filling for presidential elections of the country. People keep talking about bankrupt politicians because of little details like this, they just have to compare what assets he declared and what he owes in debt. People have the right to know the financial standing of their presidential candidates, the newspapers print this information when they filling for election, look up the older papers containing articles about declaration of their wealthy. HH has been declared the richest among the candidates, how do you think the papers knew that? Little details we forget about!

  23. Fat Bank accounts mean nothing if you cannot prove criminal activity. I have to support HH in this case, the man has tangible assets.

  24. ALL ZAMBIAN BANKS ARE USELESS, THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW CUSTOMER SERVICE. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE GOSIP AS TO WHO OWNS WHAT. HAVE A BEER WITH BANK EMPLOYEES, YOU WILL GET IT ALL. ATI BAJA, BANASILA NO CASH MU BANK ACCOUNT & EVEN DISCLOSING SECURITY DEPOSITS THAT PEOPLE HAVE. IF I LIST THEM, BARCLAYS ARE THE WORST, STANBIN, ZANACO, STANCHART, FINANCE “ FNB IS THE MOST PROFESIONAL IN ALL ZAMBIAN BANKS” WHAT A SHAME.

  25. Big L # 1, you should shut up, if you do not have what to say, you simply have preconceived ideas. did you not see that the author is Dr. Francis Mubanga(MSc. Network and Communications Management – Information Security,Information Security Advocate)????
    I think the article is open for you to think of the security issues which clients are prone in these so called banks.

  26. WHY SHOULD ZANACO BE REQUESTED TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING?

    WHY CANT HH HIMSELF WILLINGLY DISCLOSE THE SOURCE OF HIS

    INVESTMENTS, MINING, FOOD INDUSTRY ETC LIKE BILL GATES, CYRIL

    RAMAPOSA, PATRICE MOTSEPE OF USA AND SA? PRESIDENT SATA HAS BEEN

    WARY OF SCANDALS OF SOME ZAMBIANS WHO USED TO SWAP GOOD CATTLE

    IMPORTED FROM BOTSWANA WITH TONGA CATTLE IN WAGONS TO LUSAKA.

  27. WHY SHOULD ZANACO BE REQUESTED TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING?

    WHY CANT HH HIMSELF WILLINGLY DISCLOSE THE SOURCE OF HIS

    INVESTMENTS, MINING, FOOD INDUSTRY ETC LIKE BILL GATES, CYRIL

    RAMAPOSA, PATRICE MOTSEPE OF USA AND SA? PRESIDENT SATA HAS BEEN

    WARY OF SCANDALS OF SOME ZAMBIANS WHO USED TO SWAP GOOD CATTLE

    IMPORTED FROM BOTSWANA WITH TONGA CATTLE IN WAGONS TO LUSAKA.

  28. This is a very good case study, but the propagandists(useful *****s) spoil it by being too defencive. I have followed HH very well on deformatoion offences worthy sueing, he normally ignores them and what i have actually heard from him is that he does not make money out of sueing. That to me is an example of a leadership stance by a leader. imagine how much time he will spend on sueing and ripping from that. To me again this is an opportunity for Zambian to tell really whether we have a president worthy the sort or we have a kaponya in state house. NB i have respect for kaponyas because they are people, but its a term used on them for what they do – choosing to be indifferrent(unrully). It is unlikely that a kaponya could have solutions for HH instead its normal that HH must have solutions

  29. those saying they will close ther accounts shud jst shut up….tamwakwata fye….to be precise in zambia its not possible to have that kind of money from normal dealings…bafikala wake up

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