Singapore arrests two men for govt site breach

Two Singaporean men have been arrested over the alleged "hacking" of the Istana website, which belongs to the presidential office.
The two suspects were arrested today and will be charged in court tomorrow, according to a press release by the Singapore Police Force. They two men were identified as suspects earlier in November and brought in for questioning.

According to the Straits Times, the two arrested are 17-year-old ITE student Melvin Teo and 42-year-old Delson Moo. Teo had told the news agency earlier that "it was a purely stupid mistake".

They will be charged with an offence of unauthorized modification of computer material under Section 5(1) of the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, Chapter 50A. They can be fined up to S$10,000 (US$8,000), jailed up to three years or both.

Investigations are still ongoing for two separate cases involving government sites, one belonging to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the other belonging to Ang Mo Kio Town Council involving the alleged "Messiah" hacker. A spate of other cyberattacks including the defacement of Singapore sites have been linked to the "Messiah" hacker.

In early November, the PMO and Istana sites were subject cross-scripting hacks a day after Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged to "spare no effort" to "track down" hackers who targeted Singapore's IT infrastructure. Lee was responding to earlier threats by a hacker called "The Messiah", who claimed to be part of the Anonymous group and posted a YouTube video in protest of the Singapore government's online media licensing rule..