Gov't Web sites prone to hackers
By Sreejit Pillai
2nd January 2001 (Malaysia.CNET.com)

KUALA LUMPUR--Government Web sites are prone to hacker attacks as they lack the necessary security precautions to deter such intrusions, according to a local IT security expert.

The Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCert) project head Raja Azrina Raja Othman was quoted in The Sundaily today that most prone sites are government and educational institution Web sites, followed by private companies.

She was commenting on the recent hacker attack on the country's parliament Web site which was discovered on Saturday.

The hacker, nicknamed "Topeira" had defaced the Parliamentary Web site with Portugese words and information about a rock group.

Raja Azrina also said that MyCert could only mitigate and manage the risk, and not entirely eliminate the cyber threats.

"Hackers will be prevalent and made simple until developers and product owners design products with in-built security," she said.

Touching on local e-commerce business sites, Raja Azrina added there was still a lot of room for improvements in matters relating to cyber security.

Meanwhile the outspoken Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad described government Web site hackers as "clever individuals who control the press."

"In actual fact, they are the ones who have the controlling power as they do not allow other news to get through the Internet," he was quoted as saying by The Star today.