Under The Angsana Tree: Singapore vows to hunt down Anonymous hackers

Update 8 Nov 2013: PM: We will track you down even if you think you're anonymous

Anonymous Declares War on Singapore

Anonymous has declared war on Singapore, threatening the island nation with cyber-attacks. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said today that Singapore will “spare no effort” when it comes to hunting down Anonymous hackers.

Lee’s comments came after the hacktivist group Anonymous threatened to deface and shut down Singapore websites in protest of new licensing rules for online news outlets.

A member of Anonymous hacked into a Singapore newspaper blog, The Straits Times, last week, which heightened concern among government agencies

read more

Singapore vows to hunt down ‘Anonymous’ hackers and deal with them ‘severely’

About 80 masked people, calling themselves allies of the global hacker group Anonymous, picked up litter in Tokyo Saturday in a novel protest against Japan's tougher laws against illegal downloads, via AFP

Singapore will "spare no effort" to hunt down hackers from activist group Anonymous who last week threatened to wage a cyber war against the government, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Wednesday

Lee told reporters the city-state had also strengthened its defences against such attacks.

"Our IT (information technology) network, the Internet, our communications have become an essential part of our business and our lives now," the Today newspaper quoted him as saying in its online edition.

"And, therefore, when somebody threatens to do harm to it... we take that very seriously and we will spare no effort to try and track down the culprits and if we can find him, we will bring him to justice and he will be dealt with severely."

read more

Singapore Will Spare No Effort To Bring Cyber Attackers To Justice - PM Lee
Govt will spare no effort to bring cyber-attackers to justice: PM Lee

Govt will spare no effort to bring cyber-attackers to justice: PM Lee

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the authorities would spare no effort to bring culprits who launched cyber attacks on the country to justice, reported Channel NewsAsia.

The prime minister was addressing the issue of unconventional threats on the sidelines of Exercise Highcrest 2013 on Wednesday.

The exercise is one of the largest anti-terrorism drills conducted in the country. Over 1,600 personnel from 20 agencies coordinate efforts to execute terrorism response plans. The exercise started on Oct 29 and will end on Thursday.

read more

OVER 50 GOVERNMENT WEBSITES EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS

It was reported that yesterday evening, multiple government websites were down. However as of this morning, all the websites appear to be back to normal. One error reported by TRE was that the majority of government websites are not configured correctly:

It appears that the majority of Singapore’s government-related websites are currently and simultaneously undergoing “planned maintenance” or experiencing “hardware failure and routing issues”, including the website of the Prime Minister’s Office.

TR Emeritus (TRE) was alerted at about 10:45pm today (5 Nov) to the inaccessibility of most government-related websites and was able to confirm the following to be offline or having issues as of 11:00pm

read more

Singapore vows to hunt down Anonymous hackers

It was Lee's first comment since a person claiming to be from the international hackers' group Anonymous threatened to mount cyber attacks against the government in protest at new licensing rules for news websites.

Lee said authorities had worked to make cyber infrastructure less vulnerable but IT systems were complicated and not entirely impenetrable

Singapore strictly regulates the traditional media. Its new Internet rules have sparked anger in the blogging and social media community, which has raised fears they aim to muzzle free expression. Authorities have said the new licensing rules do not impinge on Internet freedom

Related articles: No effort spared to find hackers: PM Lee

read more

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong vows to hunt down and severely punish Anonymous hackers

XIN MSN News, 6 Nov 2013
Singapore will "spare no effort" to hunt down hackers from activist group Anonymous who last week threatened to wage a cyber war against the government, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Wednesday.

Lee told reporters the city-state had also strengthened its defences against such attacks.

"Our IT (information technology) network, the Internet, our communications have become an essential part of our business and our lives now," the Today newspaper quoted him as saying in its online edition.

"And, therefore, when somebody threatens to do harm to it... we take that very seriously and we will spare no effort to try and track down the culprits and if we can find him, we will bring him to justice and he will be dealt with severely." Full story

read more

MOE TELLS SCHOOLS TO ANNOUNCE “MAINTENANCE” IN THE EVENT OF A HACK?

TRS received a tip off from a local school teacher showing that the standard operating procedure when dealing with a hacked website is to announce “maintenance”.

This is a photo of an email announcement sent out by MOE to various school departments in response to the threats made by Anonymous.

The announcement states clearly that security measures are being increased in response to the targeting of Singapore websites by Anonymous

read more

Singapore vows to hunt down Anonymous hackers

PM: We will track you down

It was Lee’s first comment since a person claiming to be from the international hackers’ group Anonymous threatened to mount cyber attacks against the government in protest at new licensing rules for news websites.

In the video posted last Thursday on YouTube, a person speaking with a computer digitised voice and wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, the global symbol of Anonymous, said the group would “go to war” with the Singapore government.

A day later a person claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous hacked a reporter’s blog on the website of the pro-government Straits Times newspaper.

read more

Anonymous Physically and Digitally Protests

November 5th marks the most hallowed of days to the hacktivist group Anonymous. It was the day of a failed plot to blow up British Parliament in 1605 by Guy Fawkes. Fawkes was arrested guarding the explosives there were supposed to be used on the 5th of November, 1605, and ever since, people that stand up for the rights of the citizens, such as Anonymous, engage physically and digitally in protests as they ‘remember, remember the 5th of November.”

Guy Fawkes Day is representative on many levels to Anonymous, and the mask that millions of individuals wear during the marches and protests are considered Guy Fawkes masks. These were brought to the cultural limelight in the movie V for Vendetta as well the comic book it was originally based on, which garnered more recognition after the movie’s theatrical release.

The digitally oriented protests began earlier in the week, when sects of Anonymous took down several news organizations in Singapore and the Philippines. Anonymous claims that these countries and organizations have failed to provide their citizens with options or a voice in matters directly concerning the condition of their lives. The Messiah, a hacker that claims association with the Anonymous movement, has stated that they are directly responsible for the siege of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council which is a direct message to the Prime Minister and government of Singapore.

read more

We are Anonymous