Indonesian hacker group defaces Malaysian websites following flag blunder

UPDATE: Local courier Easyparcel.my is the latest casualty although it seems to be hit by a different hacker group. The company says it has taken the website down for maintenance and investigation. It assures customers that only the website was affected – the backed and everything else is safe. 

PETALING JAYA: Indonesian hacker group ExtremeCrew has responded to an oversight in the official souvenir booklet of the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games 2017, which carried the Indonesian flag upside down, by defacing 27 Malaysian websites.

The hacked sites feature the booklet with the message “Bendera Negaraku Bukanlah Mainan” –  which translates to “My national flag is not a plaything” – while the Indonesian patriotic anthem “Tanah Air Beta” plays in the background.

Kuala Lumpur has since apologised to Jakarta for the blunder after the issue was raised by the Indonesian Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Malaysia regretted the error made by the Malaysian Organising Committee (Masoc) and Masoc chairman, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, also posted an apology on Twitter.

Indonesian news site Elshianta.com has a full list of the hacked sites – they are primarily blog sites and are relatively unknown, and are not affiliated to any offical body or large corporation.

The Star is reaching out to CyberSecurity Malaysia and security vendors for comments on the issue. Meanwhile, Malaysia Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCert) has released an advisory for system administrators on steps to take to secure their system.