SINGAPORE--Student Edwin Lim Zhaoming, 18, Monday pleaded guilty to hacking into a Television Corporation of Singapore server on June 15. He renamed the site Mediashitty, posted vulgar messages, and abused Microsoft founder Bill Gates on the site.
Lim faced a total of 17 charges.
Sentencing has been adjourned. His lawyer said Lim was preparing for his GCE O levels as a private candidate.
The incident cost TCS about S$13,000 in manpower expenses and lost advertising revenue, reported the Straits Times. The TCS server was shut down for almost 10 hours after the incident. TCS had also spent 80 man-hours restoring the site.
On June 15, Lim had befriended a 15-year-old Myanmar national over Internet relay chat. The teenager told Lim that the TCS server had weak security and could be logged into with the username and password "news".
Armed with this knowledge, Lim decided to deface the site.
The Myanmar boy had earlier been sentenced to 12 months' probation and 100 hours of community service.
Related news stories
Law Ministry's Web site shut down after hack Thursday, November 11 1999
SingNet hacker to be jailed 15 months Wednesday, November 10 1999
Hacking claim being investigated Monday, November 01 1999
Singapore government Web site hacked Monday, November 01 1999
Singapore teen hacker jailed Friday, October 08 1999
S'pore govt education Web site hacked Tuesday, October 05 1999
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.