M’sia Govt Immigration Website Hacked By Hacker For Fun

Hacking websites is a hobby for some.

Others take this “hobby” to a whole new level by hacking government websites for no particular reason. Maybe they just felt like it.

And in one such case, the Malaysian government’s immigration website was hacked on Tuesday (4 April), apparently for fun.

Website Was “Under Maintenance”

On Tuesday morning, the Malaysian Immigration Department took to social media to inform the public that the website was “under maintenance” when in actual fact, it was hacked.

However, it was verified through searches online that the link to the website had been changed to “Hacked by Captain Smok3r.”

The hacker also left a message, stating that they did this “just for fun.” There was also a sentence in Persian, which translates to “to health, the rule that he taught if you are single, you are higher than the king.”

Good day for single people, whatever that sentence means.

Hype MY also reported that the National Heart Institute (IJN) of Malaysia’s website was hacked, with the link of the website redirecting users to the website of an unknown shoe shop.

Malaysian Immigration Department Speaks Out

In a statement released by the Malaysian Immigration Department on Tuesday (4 April) night, the hacker named “Captain Smok3r” had allegedly hacked the website at 2 am on Tuesday.

The hacking was deemed a cyber attack in the form of a “defacement” where the website’s homepage was changed to display other images.

Services provided by the website were not affected.

The department is currently taking the necessary steps to improve security and restrict access to the website’s data.

The information technology division of the department is currently working with the National Cybersecurity Agency of Malaysia (NACSA) and CyberSecurity to reinforce the website.

The public can now access the website. Luckily, there were no data leakages.

The department urged the public not to spread any speculations or assumptions that could result in confusion and disturb the country’s security.

Other Government Website Hacks

Earlier this year, the Penang government’s website was hacked, with over 600,000 people falling victim to a data breach.

According to The New Straits Times, the leaked data was allegedly posted on a forum website named “BreachForums” on 18 January.

The leaked data was fortunately outdated and came from an old database, though the Penang government still said they would take action to address the hack.

The data leaks mainly affected civil servants and their e-mails, usernames, passwords, names and identity card numbers.