Govt websites still open to attacks
By S. Gayathri
11th May 2001 PETALING JAYA, Thurs: Many government websites remain vulnerable to attacks despite numerous calls by the country's leaders to beef up security at the sites. The most recent case of a website being defaced was that of the Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM) at www.lgm.gov.my. The website was first hacked into on April 29 and soon after it was reloaded. It was defaced again yesterday. A rubber board source said the website will be temporarily inaccessible to the public but its IT department personnel are working on the problem. "We are looking into ways to enhance security ... we would like to install a firewall system to ensure better protection," he said. On April 16, the website of Cyberjaya at www.cyberjaya.com.my was also hacked into but the webpage has been uploaded and is now accessible. The recently released attrition.com list of local websites that have been hacked into includes the official site of the government's new administrative capital www.putrajaya.gov.my. At press time, the website still could not be accessed. It is believed that the Putrajaya website was hacked into on April 30. On April 28, a hacker named "The Slacker" broke into into the Tourism Malaysia site www.tourism.gov.my and declared the attack as part of a cyber war against Asia's lame computer servers. The hacker also said that besides Malaysia, other countries hit by the cyber war included China and the Philippines. Recent statistics from the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCert) shows a sharp rise in the number of computer abuses in March and April. There were 54 cases in March and 70 in April, as opposed to 40 and 29 in January and February respectively. They included hack threats, mail bombs, spam, harassment, forgery, virus, denial of service, destruction and intrusions. Although government websites are said to be more susceptible to such security threats, private sector websites have also not been spared. Among the corporate websites attacked recently were that of MidValley Megamall, Milo, National Sports Complex, Inti International College, Penang and Malaysia Airlines. Last month, hacker "senn-x" broke into the Road Transport Department's website while another managed to hack into the Parliament's website. |
