PM: No effort spared to find hackers

Singapore will "spare no effort" to track down those who threaten to attack the Republic's computer networks and bring them to justice, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

In his first comments after hacktivists threatened to cripple Singapore's information technology infrastructure last week, PM Lee said such threats are not "a laughing matter".

"It is not just anything goes and you are anonymous, therefore there is no responsibility," he told reporters after viewing security forces in a counter- terrorism exercise, codenamed Highcrest.

"You may think you are anonymous. We will make that extra effort to find out who you are."

Mr Lee noted the Internet and communications networks have become an "essential part" of life and business. "Therefore, when somebody threatens to do harm to it, to bring it down, to knock it out, we take that very seriously and we will spare no effort to try and track down the culprits.

"And if we can find him, we will bring him to justice and he will be dealt with, severely."

Last Thursday, global hackers group Anonymous issued its threat to protest against licensing regulations on news sites.

The group posted a YouTube video urging Singaporeans to mount a protest on Tuesday. But few backed the call to black out their Facebook profile pictures or dress in red and black.

Mr Lee said the Government was beefing up its systems to make it difficult for cyber hackers, though he cautioned that it was not possible to be "100 per cent waterproof", as IT systems are complicated and "somewhere or other, there will be some weakness which could be exploited".

jermync@sph.com.sg

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