Alert over risk of website hacking on May 18: CERT|CC

The Computer Emergency Readiness Team/Co-ordination Centre (CERT|CC) requests all the Government Agencies maintaining websites and web-based public applications to be alert over the risk of websites being hacked by extremist activist groups.

CERT|CC Information Security Engineer, Ravindu Meegasmulla told the Daily Mirror that according to the recent global and local cyber security incidents, which they observed this had become a practice on May 18 every year.

He said the CERT|CC had observed an increase in the number of website defacements during this particular period in the past years.

Therefore, the CERT|CC announced all responsible officers to be vigilant of the potential risk of Government Websites being intruded during this period, Mr Meegasmulla said.

On the same day of May 18, five local websites had been hacked into last year (2020) by a group of hackers targeting the Victory Day commemorations which mark the capitulation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

On May 18 in 2018, the Sinhalese version of the official website of the Ministry of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs and the website of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Honorary Consulate in Kerala were reportedly hacked this evening by an organisation calling itself the ‘Tamil Eelam Cyber Force’. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)