'Anonymous' hack Singapore newspaper's website

The hacker posted a message on a section of the paper's website

The website of Singapore's main paper, The Straits Times, has been hacked by someone who claimed to be a part of the hacking collective Anonymous.

It comes just days after a person claiming to be part of the group posted an online video threatening to hit out at the country's infrastructure.

The video protested Singapore's new licensing regulations for news sites.

The hacker, dubbed The Messiah, said the paper's report on the video was misleading.

The hacker left a comment on a section of the site saying: "Dear ST: You just got hacked for misleading the people!"

The message alleged that the Straits Times reporter who blogged on the video "chose to conveniently modify the sentence 'war against the Singapore government' into 'war against Singapore'".

"That in our opinion can be very misleading," the hacker posted.

The post added "the media has also misled our intentions by stating that we had plans to attack the infrastructure of Singapore on the 5th of November".

"That is ONLY our intention if the internet framework gets implemented. Not otherwise," it said.

Under new rules, unveiled by the Media Development Authority earlier this year, sites "that report regularly on issues relating to Singapore and have significant reach among readers" require individual licences.

Singapore Press Holdings, the firm the runs the Straits Times, said in a statement it had the taken down the affected blog from its site and also made a police report.

The paper also reported that the government's IT Security Incident Response Team - set up to co-ordinate responses to a cyber intrusion, had alerted all government agencies after the video was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.

It quoted the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore as saying that it was "aware of the video, and the police are investigating the matter".