South African sovereignty was already under siege from the baseless misinformation that President Trump used to welcome the Voetsekkers, but the latest round of xenophobia has inspired a digital attack from inside the continent. This is a war we are not ready for.

There's a memorable line in the legendary (for chronically online elder millennials) Key & Peele "Substitute Teacher" comedy sketch where the teacher confronts a student who corrected him over the pronunciation of his name. To paraphrase in the current South African context: "You done messed up March and March!"

March and March, of course, was the latest in a growing, ashamedly South African tradition of anti-immigration protests that devolve into xenophobic attacks on foreign workers and businesses across whichever metro the protest is happening. This has now inspired hacktivist groups like Nullsec Nigeria, the 404 Crew (not sure if it is the same 404 Crew that disrupted service delivery in IoT/smart city hacks in the US) and Infernalis to target Mzansi state institutions to steal data and hold it for ransom.

Daily Maverick's friends in the dark web business, DarkNotify, can't verify the method of attack. But since this current edition of #OpSouthAfrica -- a parallel of the ongoing #OpAfrica accountability crusade by the global hacker network Anonymous -- has been claimed by Nigerian threat actors, the assumption is that it involved phishing.

Precise pressure

South Africa is already losing the cyberwar across multiple...