Student charged for hacking into Istana website

SINGAPORE — A 17-year-old Institute of Education (ITE) student was today (Nov 29) charged in the district court for hacking into the Istana website.

Melvin Teo now faces two charges for the unauthorised modification of computer material under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act which carries a punishment of a fine of up to S$10,000, a jail term of up to three years or both.

Teo was arrested yesterday along with 42-year-old businessman Mr Delson Moo — who was charged in court earlier today.

Teo is alleged to have attempted to hack the website twice on Nov 8. Once at or before 12.33am and the second time after 12.33am.

He is also accused of causing an unauthorised modification of the contents of the server hosting the website, “www.istana.gov.sg” by using the search function on the server to process a script which he had crafted and injected into the server.

By doing so, Teo is alleged to have impaired the normal operation of the server, in particular by causing the search function of the server to generate and communicate instructions to display text and images specified in his script, instead of the output which the search function would cause to be displayed under normal operation.

He is alleged of adding an image of a male individual pointing his index finger; and the phrase, “Melvin Teo For The Win!~” after 12.33am. He also allegedly added the phrase “~Patrick Tan for the win!~”.

The district judge has scheduled a pre-trial conference on Jan 24 next year.