A 17-year-old high school student was charged Wednesday after he confessed to hacking a government website and creating a Facebook page on which he encouraged people to attack government websites as well as the websites of pro-government groups, officials confirmed, though the exact charges are not known.
Chin Neangleangmeng, a student at Phnom Penh’s Hun Sen Chak Angre Krom High School who goes by the online name Attacker Fiber, was arrested on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the Internet hacking group Anonymous Cambodia, National Police spokesman Lieutenant General Kirth Chantharith said Wednesday.
He added the charges against the student were “unclear.”
No cyber crime law exists presently, and authorities rely on articles under the information technology section of the criminal code.
Mr. Neangleangmeng’s arrest is the fifth arrest of an alleged hacker and Anonymous Cambodia member in the past two months.
It also comes less than a week after a Chinese government website was hacked and defaced by the hacker known as Attacker Fiber.
A statement on the National Police website Wednesday said Mr. Neangleangmeng was arrested for “attacking the information system of the government” and creating a Facebook page, where he incited hackers.
The statement says that Mr. Neangleangmeng created a page where he encouraged others “to attack the Royal Government of Cambodia” after the arrests of two Anonymous hackers in April.
On Facebook Wednesday, the Anonymous Cambodia page and the page Attacker Fiber had a number of posts that called for Anonymous members to attack government and pro-government organization websites.
The Anonymous Cambodia page was created April 22, while the Attacker Fiber page was created May 23.
Both have not been updated since late last week.
Deputy National Police Chief Lieutenant General Chhay Sinarith on Wednesday said Mr. Neangleangmeng had confessed to his crimes.
“We arrested him after police took the time to investigate this [Anonymous Cambodia] group after they said they would topple the government…. The suspect told police this group attacked the website of a private organization and a state website,” said Lt. Gen. Sinarith.
He declined to say what website Mr. Neangleangmeng had hacked.
On May 27, the hacker known as Attacker Fiber attacked the Tianmen Land and Resource Network website and defaced its index page, according to the post on the Anonymous Cambodia Facebook page.
In April, after an eight-month joint investigation between the National Police and the FBI, alleged Anonymous Cambodia members Bun Khing Mongkul Panha, 21, and Chou Songheng, 21, were arrested and charged for attacking 30 government websites and stealing data.
Two more alleged members were arrested less than two months later for hacking the Anti-Corruption Unit’s website.
