Singapore arrests man, investigates others over hacker attacks
Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:00
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Reuters: Singapore charged on Tuesday a 35-year-old man suspected of hacking a website linked to the prime minister and police said five other men were assisting in separate investigations into a recent series of high-profile hacker attacks.
Hacker attacks by people claiming links to international hacker collective Anonymous, including one on the official sites of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Tony Tan, have raised questions about the strength of cyber defences in the wealthy Southeast Asian city-state. A suspect called James Raj appeared in court and was charged with modifying the contents of a website belonging to the town council that manages the prime minister’s constituency on 28 October. If found guilty, he could be jailed for up to three years and fined S$ 10,000. Raj allegedly hacked the web server from an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, according to a charge sheet seen by Reuters.
A state prosecutor told the court that investigations were still going on and asked that Raj be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric evaluation. The prosecutor said Raj had told police he suffered from attention deficit disorder and suicidal tendencies.
Police declined to give details but suggested that Raj was not responsible for defacing the prime minister’s office and presidential palace websites on November 7 and 8. Police said in a statement that those attacks were not related to earlier ones which they said were carried out by a 35-year-old Singaporean arrested on Nov 4. Police did not identify that person but they were apparently referring to Raj. Police said they had worked closely with Malaysian counterparts to track down and arrest the suspect on November 4.
