‘Messiah’ hacker jailed for computer misuse, taking drugs

SINGAPORE — Hacker James Raj Arokiasamy, who uses the pseudonym The Messiah, has been sentenced to 56 months in prison for computer misuse and drug consumption.

He had pleaded guilty to 39 of the 161 charges made against him for performing preparatory acts to secure access to and hacking into the Web servers of Fuji Xerox; pop singer Sun Ho, the wife of City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee; The Straits Times’ blog; People’s Action Party Community Foundation (PCF) and the Ang Mo Kio Town Council.

The 36-year-old Singaporean was also charged with scanning Web servers belonging to City Harvest and several government agencies, including the Prime Minister’s Office, prisons and the Ministry of Communications and Information.

Of the 161 charges, 39 charges for computer misuse and one charge for drug consumption were proceeded with, while the other char­ges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Apart from his hacking acts, James Raj also posted an online video on October 2013 threatening that the infamous hacker group Anonymous, which he claimed to be part of, would “go to war” with the Singapore Government.

Deputy Chief District Judge Jennifer Marie said today (Jan 30) that the chilling effect of the video, which was played in court during the trial, had “shed light on the person behind these acts — the audacious bravado of James Raj”.

James Raj, who committed his offences between March and November 2013, was living in Kuala Lumpur at the time of his arrest in November that year.

He was arrested by the Malaysian police and sent back to Singapore, where he had been in remand until his sentencing.

The tall and thin man, with distinct tattoos on his arms, remained calm as Judge Marie read out the sentence to him.

He represented himself in court today, having discharged his lawyer M Ravi.

Judge Marie said there was a need to send a strong signal to James Raj as well as like-minded persons that “they should banish the thought of pursuing such criminal conduct”.

“Given the current climate where international and domestic terrorist security threats are more prevalent than before, a threat to the IT systems (and) cyberattacks in a country like Singapore that is highly networked should be visited with exemplary sentences,” she said.

James Raj’s sentence will take effect from the date of his arrest on Nov 4, 2013.