MyBroadband’s Jan Vermeulen wins Vodacom Journalist of the Year award

MyBroadband’s Jan Vermeulen has won the Gauteng Vodacom Journalist of the Year award in the coveted investigative journalism category for his investigation into IP address theft.

The annual Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards pays tribute to exceptional journalism in South Africa.

Vermeulen entered the investigative journalism category for his extensive work to expose the theft of millions of IP addresses which were sold on the black market.

This included large chunks of South African IP address space belonging to Sasol, Nedbank, and government.

His investigation revealed that an insider at the very organisation meant to look after these IP addresses was involved.

The investigation also revealed that a second category of Internet resources that had been misappropriated — large swaths of valuable “legacy” IP address space.

Those affected included the City of Cape Town, SITA, the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, Woolworths, Nampak, and Sasol.

Following the publication of Vermeulen’s articles, IP address space worth millions was reclaimed, and AFRINIC filed a criminal complaint against the insider and fired him.

MyBroadband editor Rudolph Muller said this award is well deserved for one of the best pieces of investigative journalism ever in the South Africa IT space.

He also thanked the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards judges for taking the time to judge this very technical investigation.

Jan Vermeulen’s IP address heist investigation

For more information about this investigation and Vermeulen’s reports, here is a list of articles:

• The big South African IP address heist – How millions are made on the “grey” market
• How Internet resources worth R800 million were stolen and sold on the black market
• Police charges filed in African IP address heist case
• R1.3-billion worth of Internet resources stolen in Great African IP Address Heist

The fallout from the investigation continues, with more articles expected to follow in the coming weeks.