Brunei News Website Hacked
By M K Anwar

Bandar Seri Begawan - One of Brunei Darussalam's private and popular news web sites, brudirect.com, went off the Internet for a few hours yesterday as some cyber crooks hacked into the portal and posted an obscene message.

People who tried to access the web site were directed to a web page with messages carrying profanity the hackers had set up.

Calling themselves "Noizebox" and a crew of four naming themselves "fishstiqz", "bytemonk", "d10r" and "n00v", these hackers claimed that they could `juggle assembly of different architecture" (security programs).

The site set up by the hackers also contained an encrypted message.

A simple program easily decrypted what was a threatening message, which said that an IT company and BruNet were next.

The hackers have certainly sent alarms bells ringing especially for companies who have their own web sites.

According to sources, IT experts at government ministries said they are monitoring their web sites or networks closely should these hackers try to interfere with any of the portals.

The way the message was presented also showed that the hackers had a grudge against another group of hackers that won a hacking competition recently in Singapore.

The hackers bragged about their hacking abilities and said they are truly the elite in this field.

Mr Ignatius Stephen, Director of Brudirect, said he lodged a police report on the hacking of the web site. In the report, Mr Ignatius said that he believed the hackers disabled BruNet at about 9 Monday night and hijacked the domain name (brudirect.com) and replaced it with their content.

The brudirect web site was down for around five hours and it took them all morning to track the site and redirect it to their own server.

The web site was up and running by 2pm. Under the Computer Misuse Act 2000, anyone found guilty of unauthorised interception or obstruction of computer services can be fined not more than $10,000 or jailed not more than three years or even both for the first offence.

A second or subsequent offence carries a fine of not more than $20,000 or not more than five years in jail or even both.

If any damage is done, the guilty party is liable to a fine of not more than $50,000 and a jail term not exceeding seven years or both.

"We hope that the culprits will be caught and punished because BruNet is a government property which has been violated," said Mr Ignatius.

He also said that hacking is a serious cyber crime in view of the security aspect involved in protecting the banks or financial institutions, e-government projects and the security forces sites.  -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with