IDA claims government sites were not hacked

While the public remains curious as to why several government sites were inaccessible over the weekend, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has released a statement saying the outage was caused by a glitch in the maintenance process which took place from 1pm to 3pm.IDA refuted rumors that the sites were inaccessible due to hacking.An IDA spokesperson also explained that on Saturday, the websites were unavailable due to a “combination of a routing issue and a hardware failure” and the issues rectified by 5.20pm.Over the next few days, while maintenance is in progress, some Government websites may continue to experience intermittent access. Government agencies will work to complete the maintenance works as soon as possible.“Maintenance of IT systems is part of the government’s on-going efforts to enhance security,” the spokesperson added.Also, she added that the government agencies have been on "heightened vigilance and have enhanced the security of their IT systems" in response to the declared threats against the Government’s ICT infrastructure.The threats were made last week when a YouTube video posted by “Annonymous”. The video threatened to bring down key infrastructures in Singapore in an attempt to show protest against the state’s new licensing rules imposed on websites.The Straits Times website was hacked by the group for an article it claimed had misrepresented the group's intentions.Under the new licensing framework proposed by the government, websites covering/reporting on local news and other developments and boasting unique visits of 50,000 for three months must pay a licensing fee. These websites must also remove stories which MDA deems as a guideline breach within 24 hours.