Sri Lankan Student Held for Hacking President Sirisena’s Website

Colombo: With an aim to get his examinations postponed, a Sri Lankan student has hacked President Maithripala Sirisena’s official website and posted a message in Sinhala demanding postponement of exams. However, the Sri Lankan teenager,17, was quickly arrested.

The government IT department immediately got into action and removed the message after it appeared. The President’s website has been restored and is functioning normally from Monday.

He demanded that A-level exams scheduled to be held in April should be postponed as exam date was clashing with Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations.
Police arrested the student, who’s being questioned to determine any other motives.
There was a message on the website threatening the President cautioning “to take care of the security of Sri Lankan websites or face a cyber war.”

“If you cannot control the situation, hold a Presidential election,” the message said, along with a call for the president to “stop the prime minister’s irresponsible work and look more into the problems of the university students”.

The government IT department immediately got into action and removed the message after it appeared. The President’s website has been restored and is functioning normally from Monday.

Police tracked the student’s whereabouts and reached to Kadugannava village, 100 km away from Colombo, arrested him. He was arrested under Cyber Crime Act-2007 and Police denied to divulge details of the student.