×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Illegal wifi access lands man in trouble

News
A CHITUNGWIZA man, suspected to have illegally accessed his former employer’s computer network and that of the High Court of Zimbabwe

A CHITUNGWIZA man, suspected to have illegally accessed his former employer’s computer network and that of the High Court of Zimbabwe and the Private Investigations Department, yesterday appeared in court facing allegations of contravening the Criminal Law Code and Censorship Act.

BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI

Givemore Banda (25) of Zengeza 5 in Chitungwiza was charged with one count of unauthorised access to, or use of, a computer or computer network and unauthorised use of a password or pin number as defined in Section 163 and 168 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act respectively as well as another count of contravening Section 26 (1) (a) of the Entertainment and Censorship Act.

He was, however, not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe and was remanded to today for his bail application.

Prosecutor Sharon Mashavira told the court that Banda was formerly employed by My Cyber Internet Café (Pvt) Ltd as an office assistant since March 2014. The complainant, whose name was not mentioned in State papers, is the director of My Cyber Internet Café (Pvt) Ltd.

It is alleged that in May 2014, the complainant experienced traffic congestion in her software and started monitoring downloads coming through her network and discovered that the accused was abusing her Wi-Fi network.

The complainant warned Banda to desist from his conduct and he stopped for a short while and then started again, forcing the complainant to fire him. Banda allegedly started renting an office next to the complainant’s Internet café and the network congestion resurfaced.

On February 3 2015, the complainant got a tip off from her son that Banda was downloading some material using her Wi-Fi system.

The complainant approached Banda and row ensued as she demanded to see the current folder displayed on his laptop, leading to the intervention of a police officer, the court heard.

The police officer ordered the accused to switch on his laptop and it automatically connected to the complainant’s network, it is alleged.

The police officer and the complainant went through the downloaded material and discovered that Banda had accessed U-Torrent software which facilitates the downloading of movies, computer software and pornographic materials.

The complainant also discovered that Banda’s laptop had allegedly been used to access several Internet networks including that of the High Court and the Private Investigations Department.