Sri Lankan President's website hacked twice within two days

Hackers tampered with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's official website 'www.president.gov.lk' on two consecutive days.

The first attack occurred on Thursday evening, when hackers hijacked the site and posted a message in Sinhala, reports the Lanka Page.

The message, which was posted under the name "The Sri Lankan Youth," made several demands to the government, including a call to reconsider the decision to hold the GCE A/Level examination in April instead of August.

It also called on the government to be more mindful about the security of Sri Lankan websites. Failure to do so could result in the country having to face a cyber war, the message further warned.

The other demands were to stop the "irresponsible conduct" of the Prime Minister and to be more attentive to the problems faced by university students.

While the website came back online a few hours later, the subsequent attack on Friday resulted in officials having to take down the site for a much longer period.

The crime is being probed by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives specializing in cybercrime after an official complaint was lodged.

The President's Media Director, Dharmasiri Bandara Ekanayake said a decision was made to temporarily take down the website after it was hacked a second time on Friday evening.

Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT), the country's state machinery that deals with cybercrims is also looking into the hacking and said it is collecting relevant information that would determine how vulnerable the site was to cyber attacks.