Two more alleged members of the hacking group Anonymous Cambodia were arrested Thursday for attacking the website of the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and taking it offline for more than two hours this week, an official confirmed Friday.
“We arrested two men and they were both sent to the ACU’s headquarters at 2 a.m. today,” said ACU chairman Om Yentieng. “We have collected enough evidence to prove the two perpetrators are guilty of hacking activities and we will send them straight to court.”
He declined to name the two men, but said they are currently being held for questioning.
Mr. Yentieng said the men first attacked ACU’s website from their mobile phones on Wednesday, starting at about 2 a.m., but were unable to infiltrate the site. Then, at about 7 a.m., the men used a computer to attack the site and succeeded in taking it offline for about two hours.
He said the hack was an SQL injection, which exploits vulnerability in an application’s software.
“Our staff who are well educated in information technology are smarter than those hackers and our staff was strong enough to defend and restore the website, and the site is now working again,” said Mr. Yentieng.
On its Facebook page, members of Anonymous Cambodia said Friday that the ACU fabricated the arrests. They also vowed to continue attacks on the websites of pro-government institutions and claimed to have infiltrated the National Military Police site as well as Cana Securities Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of the country’s largest banks, Canadia Bank Plc.
Brigadier General Kheng Tito, spokesman for the National Military Police, said hackers infiltrated the organization’s website for about 10 hours on Thursday.
“It did not harm national security. Now it operates as normal,” he said.
The hackers posted what appear to be usernames and passwords to the website of Cana Securities.
Officials at Canadia Bank declined to comment.
Thursday’s arrests come about a month after two other members of Anonymous Cambodia, Bun Khing Mongkul Panha, 21, and Chou Songheng, 21, were arrested and charged for attacking 30 government websites and stealing data.
Police said Mr. Panha confessed to the crimes, while Mr. Songheng said he was only a student learning about hacking.
In that case, the arrests were made following an eight-month probe by the National Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
