IDA issues alert on ‘tweet storm’ targeting govt accounts

SINGAPORE — The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is alerting the public to a potential “tweet storm” on two government Twitter accounts. A tweet storm is a coordinated action by users to send out the same tweet at the same time, generating a storm of tweets on an account.

The IDA said a member claiming to be from the hacktivist collective Anonymous had posted on Jan 16 a notice on Pastebin, a website for sharing text files, asking supporters to use Twitter to demand the release of five men who had been arrested last year for vandalising properties with phrases purportedly linked to Anonymous in Singapore.

They were asked to tweet storm @govsingapore and @MFAsg, the official Twitter accounts for the Singapore Government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs respectively.

Supporters were also asked to email Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

This was the first call for a tweet storm against government accounts. The IDA has urged the public not to be alarmed if they see unusual activity on government social media channels, though none has been observed so far. An IDA spokesperson said the tweet storm will not affect government network infrastructure and added that the authorities take cyber security and threats very seriously.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Home Affairs said it was aware of the situation and will continue to monitor it.

Lawyers interviewed said participating in a tweet storm was unlikely to constitute as an offence. Technology lawyer Bryan Tan noted that a tweet storm would not have the ability to obstruct the use of a computer service as defined by the laws.