Singaporean Hackers Arrested for Breaching President's Website

Two men were arrested for hacking Singaporean President Tony Tan’s website, according to Agence France-Presse, as quoted by Rappler. The 42-year-old and 17-year-old face a maximum fine of $8,000 and up to three years in prison.

The arrests follow a complaint filed by the website administrators of Istana, the official residence of the president. Hackers managed to breach the web page in the early morning of November, about an hour after Anonymous members broke into Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s website to post mocking messages and images.

Police said the two attacks are unrelated but didn`t reveal the identity of those arrested. However, 42-year-old businessman Doolson Moo said last week that he was the one who breached the Istana website to “test for vulnerabilities.”

Moo claimed he only wrote a line of code into the search box of the website and managed to display a picture of an old woman pointing her middle finger. Moo also posted offensive words in the southern Chinese dialect of Hokkien. For the attack, he worked with a 17-year-old accomplice he had met on Facebook.

The alleged hackers of the presidential website will be charged in court on Friday for offenses under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.