There has been a dramatic increase in the number of South African hacks reported to zone-h.org, with four university sites and 5fm’s homepage being targeted by hackers last week. Latitude Information Technology Security consultant Karel Rode says local sites have been identified as soft targets by foreign hackers because many of the sites have not been protected properly. “There are too many companies that are using old software and basic operating systems for their Web sites. Because of the lack of protection, hackers are taking advantage of the loopholes and are gaining access to the site,” Rode says. Internet lawyer Reinhardt Buys says that between 60 to 70 local sites a day are being hacked as opposed to the several experienced daily two months ago. Full Story