Ministries, agencies told to beef up cyber security

One of the messages posted on the Information Department website was a purported notice of Najib’s resignation as prime minister. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Dr Ali Hamsa has directed all department and ministries to raise the level of security of their websites to prevent hacking.

The directive was a follow-up to the hacking of the Information Department’s website.

“All ministries will take security measures, not only the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture,” he told reporters after a public briefing at the Defence Ministry, here, today.

He said, to date, the level of security at all the ministries’ websites was under control and they were asked to be alert of the hacking threat at all times.

The e-Akhbar and e-Press websites belonging to the department was suspected to have been hacked with the posting of two statements — ‘Memo on the Request of the People of Malaysia’ and ‘Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib) Officially Resigns’, which the department discovered early today. —

In this regard, he said, the government was trying to identify the individuals involved and they would be severely dealt with.

Meanwhile, Information, Communications and Culture Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Kamaruddin Siaraf said the suspected hacking of the Information Department’s websites had been reported to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and police.

“The system was hacked, it is not possible for e-Press to issue such a statement,” he said after handing over the National Arts, Culture and Heritage Academy excellent students award, here, yesterday.

The Information Department in a statement today denied issuing any statement on the resignation of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as quoted and disseminated in several social media sites this morning.

Information director-general Datuk Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, in the statement, also said that the Department had acted quickly to remove the false statements from the sites.

He believed the hacking was done to create a climate of uncertainty in the country and to tarnish the image of the department.

“We do not rule out the possibility of a third party involvement and generally the Internet Protocol (IP) address recording overseas users had been identified.

“We are still investigating the possibility the IP is just a red herring. Nobody will escape, even insiders,” he said after lodging a report at the Putrajaya police headquarters, today. — Bernama