14 DAY TRIAL // 27-year-old Singaporean Mohammad Azhar Tahir has been charged for hacking-related offenses after targeting the website of the country’s prime minister. He faces a total of 10 counts for charges such as unauthorized access to a computer, hacking into online accounts, and modifying the content of the PM’s website.
According to Channel News Asia, Mohammad Azhar’s 21-year-old brother, Mohammad Asyiq Tahir, has also been charged with hacking into a computer and hijacking a YouTube account on which he uploaded an Anonymous video.
He is also said to have hacked Gmail, Facebook, Blogspot, and Hotmail accounts. Each of them can be released until the next court date if they can pay $10,000 (€7,500) for bail.
Two other individuals, a businessman and a student, have been charged for "defacing" the website of the presidency.
In both the attacks against the prime minister and the president’s websites, the hackers didn’t actually breach the sites. Instead, they exploited a cross-site scripting vulnerability to display a picture of an Anonymous mask and a message.
Another individual charged with hacking is 35-year-old James Raj Arokiasamy. He’s said to be the Anonymous hacker known as The Messiah.
He was arrested in Malaysia, where he had fled after facing drug charges. He’s accused of breaching the website of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council.
Earlier this week, he was denied bail because he is a flight risk. On his laptop, investigators found the bank statements of close to 650 customers of Standard Chartered Bank.
It’s believed the information had been obtained from the systems of Fuji Xerox, a company that provides printing services for the financial institution.
Shortly after Anonymous hackers set their sights on Singapore for the government’s controversial Internet licensing rules, the country’s prime minister threatened that all culprits would be tracked down. Police obviously moved quickly to bring in some suspects.