14 DAY TRIAL // Five days after Sri Lanka President's website was defaced, local police arrested a 17-year-old student on suspicion of carrying out the hacks.
The defacements took place last week, on Thursday, August 25, and then the following day, on Friday, August 26.
The message left on the defaced website, on both occasions, asked the government to move the A-level exams from April back to August, their initial date.
The reason was that the new date coincides with Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations, an inconvenience for most Sri Lankan students.
The defacement message also took a jab at the country's Prime Minister, responsible for changing the exam date, and told the President to hold a new Presidential election if he couldn't get the job done.
Teenager arrested in less than a week
Government officials said they filed a complained with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) following the second defacement, and they started an investigation along with the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT)
The President's website was put in maintenance mode but was brought back online on Sunday. President Maithripala Sirisena made no public comments about the incident.
Police arrested the teenager in the town of Kadugannawa in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, on Monday afternoon, on August 29.
In his defacement message, which you can read below in a translated form, the teenager claimed to be part of The Sri Lankan Youth hacking crew.
UPDATE: Shortly after publishing our article, Sri Lankan media reported about a second arrest made today. The second suspect is 26 years old and is from the town of Moratuwa.
Dear Mr. President,
We are extremely displeased with the decision to hold GCE AL in April since the Sinhala/Hindu New Year falls in between the exam dates. Therefore, reconsider that decision. Furthermore, take care of the security of Sri Lankan websites. Or else, we will have to face a cyber war.
If you cannot control the situation hold a Presidential Election.
Stop the Prime Minister’s irresponsible work. Look more into the problems of the university students.
The Sri Lankan Youth
