The Messiah
Unmasked?
How accused in hacking case was tracked
down
Not so anonymous any
more?
Man believed to be 'The Messiah' arrested
in KL, charged here
Caught:
James Raj Arokiasamy (left, and in illustration below), 35,
was yesterday charged with compromising a town council's
website. TNP PHOTO: JEREMY LONG TNP ILLUSTRATION: KELVIN
CHAN
Hackers usually hide behind the cloak of anonymity to do
their dirty deeds.
A notorious group of hacktivists even call themselves Anonymous
and use a Guy Fawkes mask as their symbol.
Someone who styled himself as "The Messiah" has
claimed credit for hacking several websites in Singapore since
September.
This person, who also claimed to be linked to
Anonymous, is believed to be responsible for defacing websites
belonging to The Straits Times, pop singer Ho Yeow Sun and the
People's Action Party Community Foundation.
But his attempt at using anonymity to cover his
tracks seem to have failed to stop the law from catching up with
him.
ARRESTED IN MALAYSIA
Last week, the man suspected of being "The Messiah" behind the
hacking incidents was arrested in Malaysia.
James Raj Arokiasamy, a 35-year-old Singaporean,
was believed to have been on the run from drug offences in
Singapore since 2011.
A police statement yesterday said he was arrested
in a Kuala Lumpur apartment last Monday and brought back to
Singapore. (See report on right.)
Yesterday, James Raj was charged in court with
compromising the website of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council website
last month.
He also faces three other charges for drug use in
2011, for which he had been on the run from the Central Narcotics
Bureau.
The police said it took extensive investigations
and enquiries to establish him as a suspect and tracked him down in
Malaysia.
"The arrest was made with the close co-operation
and support from the Royal Malaysian Police," a spokesman
said.
Five men were also charged yesterday with vandalism
after allegedly spray-painting messages linked to Anonymous. Other
are helping with police investigations into other hacking
incidents. (See reports on facing page.)
A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesman said:
"Much effort and resources have been required to track down the
persons responsible."
"Such persons only serve to disrupt the lives of
other law-abiding citizens and cause unnecessary alarm. We should
not allow the actions of a few to affect our sense of safety and
security in Singapore."
ACTED ALONE
James Raj is believed to have acted alone in altering the Ang Mo
Kio Town Council website by breaking into its content management
system (CMS), according to the police, and court documents.
Mr Paul Ducklin, senior security adviser of
security software firm Sophos, said the CMS could be used to track
a website hacker.
"A CMS is to your website as Microsoft Word is to
your documents. It is a user interface, backend database, website
creator, etc - exactly what its name suggests," he said.
Mr Ducklin was talking to The New Paper in an
e-mail interview from Sydney, where he is based.
He said that a crook might be able to get into the
CMS through simple exploits, which grants him the ability to change
the website's content.
"The silver lining might be that since a CMS is
designed to keep track of changes, such as who edited the file or
who uploaded that image, you may be able to track down the
perpetrator."
More skilful hackers would access the management
interface of the CMS to better cover their tracks, he said.
Manager of Local IT firm SecureIT-Net Alex Nian
said hackers could also hide behind several proxy servers to hamper
police investigations.
These are international servers that conceal a
user's original location and assign him a new Internet address.
Use of multiple proxy servers in various countries
can make it difficult to track hackers, making their intrusions
virtually anonymous.
To peel away the layers, the authorities can
requests Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to share information
about a hacker's web trail, Mr Nian said.
"It is a lengthy process that involves a lot of
documentation," he added.
The method allegedly used by James Raj to alter the
town council website is a top vulnerability for websites, said
Trend Micro Singapore country manager David Siah.
He said: "Hackers are counting on the possibility
that the website is not coded securely and as we can see, there are
still a lot of websites that will benefit from a review."
15 caught for mask march
They responded to calls in support of a movement called the
"Million Mask March", held on Nov 5 to commemorate Guy Fawkes
Day.
The 15 Singaporean protesters - aged between 16 and
27 years old - disobeyed a police advisory reminding the public
that organising or participating in a public assembly without a
permit is illegal and may constitute an offence under the Public
Order Act.
In an email to the media yesterday, the police said
a group of 12 men gathered near City Hall MRT station at around 7pm
that day.
The group were dressed in red or black clothes and
three were wearing Guy Fawkes masks. Officers found a total of 14
masks in their possession.
About three hours later, two other men and a woman
were seen with masks on Orchard Road.
All 15 are now assisting with police investigations
into possible offences of organising and/or taking part in a public
assembly without a permit.
Accused stayed in pricey KL
unit
James Raj Arokiasamy, 35, is believed to have fled to
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to escape his alleged drug offences in
Singapore in 2011.
The Singaporean is now not only facing charges for the drug
offences but also a charge for allegedly hacking the Ang Mo Kio
Town Council website on Oct 28.
He is believed to have committed the hacking
offence from Dorchester Apartment, a private serviced apartment
block at Jalan Sri Hartamas, near upmarket Mont Kiara and Desa Sri
Hartamas with its chic cafes and pubs.
Malaysian property agent Max Tan, 33, who is
familiar with the area, said the apartments are popular with
expatriates and those staying long-term in KL.
A studio apartment measuring 400 to 500 sq ft
carries a monthly rental of RM1,600 (S$620) to Rm1,800, depending
on the furnishings, he said.
He told The New Paper over the phone: "The rental
is high, so usually expatriates rent there. A lot of expatriates
use bicycles to travel to the nearby areas, although some of them
do own cars."
Taylor's College is also within walking distance -
which make the apartments popular among foreign students, including
those from Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Europe and the
Middle-East, other property agents said.
James Raj, who is represented by lawyer M.Ravi, was
arrested on Nov 4 in Malaysia.
He was charged here with three counts of drug
consumption the next day.
The slim, balding man yesterday faced a new charge
- an offence under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act for
allegedly modifying the contents of the Ang Mo Kio Town Council
website.
He will be remanded at the Institute of Mental
Health for psychiatric evaluation and will be back on the court on
Nov 26.
If convicted of drug consumption, he can be jailed
up to 10 years and fined up to $20,000 on each count.
If found guilty under the Computer Misuse Act,
first-time offenders can be jailed up to three years and fined up
to $10,000.
HIS RISE AND FALL
Sept
2
The official website of City Harvest Church co-founder and pop
singer Ho Yeow Sun, 41, is hacked by someone who signs off as "The
Messiah".
Oct
17
Pre-school operator PAP Community Foundation's website is hacked
by "The Messiah".
Oct
28
Someone claiming to be part of global hacker group Anonymous
posts a video on YouTube, threatening to hit out at Singapore's
infrastructure.
Nov
1
"The Messiah" hacks into a webpage that carried blogs by The
Straits Times reporters.
Nov
4
James Raj Arokiasamy, 35, is arrested in Malaysia in connection
with 'The Messiah" hacking incidents.
Nov
5
James Raj is also brought back to Singapore and charged with
three counts of consuming drugs, including methamphetamine, also
known as Ice, and Erimin 5, which is used to treat insomnia, on May
25, 2011.
Nov
12
James Raj is charged with an offence under the Computer Misuse
and Cybersecurity Act.
FIVE SUSPECTS FOUND IN ISTANA AND PMO
CASES
Five suspects believed to be involved in the "hacking"
of the Istana and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) websites are
assisting in police investigations.
The New Paper understands that two suspects in the PMO case are
brothers in their 20s. TNP also understands the Istana incident
involves a 17-year-old student and a 45-year-old IT executive who
are not related to each other.
The police believe that both cases are not
connected to the other cases of hacking and vandalism.
The Istana an PMO websites were compromised on Nov
7 and 8, with the search bars of the sites manipulated to direct
users to certain images.
These images were also believed to be shared on
forums.
For a brief period, the PMO site displayed the
headline "it's Great to be Singaporean today".
The Istana site was believed to have displayed a
picture of an old woman pointing her middle finger, along with
offensive Hokkien words.
Both subpages were taken down within 15 minutes.
said the lnfocomm Development Authority.
The attacks on both websites are separate
incidents. the police said.
Five charged with
vandalism
CHARGED: (From left)
Muhammad Redzwan Baskin, 26, Muhammad Fitri Abu Kasim, 24, and
Danial Ryan Salleh, 25, were yesterday charged with vandalism. Two
other alleged accomplices were also charged. FACEBOOK PHOTO BY
MUHAMMAD FITRI
For allegedly defacing public property on Nov 5, five
men ended up in court yesterday on vandalism charges.
Four of them - Mohamad Fadzly Aziz, 21, Muhammad Qamarul Arifin
Sa'adon, 22, Muhantmad Fitri Abu Kasim, 24, and Danial Ryan Salleh,
25 - allegedly spray-painted "WE ARE ONE WE ARE LEGION EXPECT
US!!", followed by a logo-styled "TSK" on a pavement outside
Sunshine Plaza at Prinsep Link at around 4am that day.
About four minutes later, they allegedly
spray-painted another message on a pillar at the shopping mall.
At 4.20am that day, they allegedly vandalised the
pavement at a taxi stand on Waterloo Street.
Forty minutes later, Mohamad Fadzly and the fifth
accused, Muhantmad Redzwan Baskin, 26, went to *Scape at Orchard
Link and continued their alleged vandalism. Muhammad Redzwan is
accused of defacing the wall of a ramp while Mohamad Fadzly
allegedly spray-painted "WE ARE ANONYMOUS - TSK" on the pavement of
the ramp.
The police arrested four of the men on Nov 7 and
Muhammad Fitri the next day. All five were skateboarding
friends.
They appeared calm as they stood on the dock
yesterday.
Only Danial Ryan told District Judge Kessler Soh
that he wanted to engage a lawyer.
They were each offered $15,000 bail and will be
back in court on Dec 10. If convicted of vandalism, they can be
fined up to $2,000 or jailed up to three years and given three to
eight strokes of the cane for each charge
News, The New Paper, Wednesday, November 13 2013, Pg 2-3
