17-yr old arrested for hacking presidential website in S Lanka

Colombo, Aug 29 (PTI) A 17-year-old schoolboy from SriLanka’s central provincial town of Kadugannawa was todayarrested on charges that he had hacked into PresidentMaithripala Sirisena’s official website. The arrest was made following a complaint by thepresidential media division, police said. The website was hacked two days in a row, on Thursday andFriday. The website went offline after the second attack. Soon after the incident, the CID was tasked with carryingout the investigation with the assistance of the Sri LankaComputer Emergency Readiness Team, local media reported. Presidential media officials said the first attackoccurred on Thursday evening, when hackers attacked the siteand posted a message in Sinhala. In the message, the group, who called themselves the ‘SriLankan Youth’, requested Sirisena to reconsider the decisionto hold the GCE Advanced Level Examination in April as itcoincides with the Sinhala and Hindu New Year. They urged the government to be more careful about cybersecurity and advised the president to hold a snap election. The other demands were to stop the "irresponsibleconduct" of the Prime Minister and to be more attentive to theproblems faced by university students. PTI CORRZH