In the wake of the Information scandal (known as Muldergate) in which the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) had become mired, the head of the BOSS, Hendrik van den Berg, resigned in June 1978 and was replaced by Alec van Wyk. Beginning with the covert Operation Savannah in 1975, it helped organize operations against the MPLA during the Angolan Civil War with the assistance of the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. This action, which escalated into a full-scale undeclared war and had received neither approval nor discussion from the Cabinet, prompted further outrage at the organization. The Bureau for State Security was then renamed the Department of National Security (DONS) on 1 September 1978.