KOTA KINABALU, Sept 25 — A group of self-proclaimed cyber hackers has threatened to shut down the website of the Sabah Water Department (SWD) and destroy all its data unless it improves the quality of its service.
SWD director Amarjit Singh said a letter was sent to its corporate affairs email address on Saturday.
“The department received the disturbing email on September 21, threatening to shut our website down if we don’t carry out our work to their satisfaction. The group signed off as ‘Silence Hacker group’.
“We consider this kind of thing a personal attack. I don’t know whether it’s to me or to my officers, but I think it is all of us because we are one family here, and this is the first time we have received such a thing,” he said during a press conference today.
In the letter, shown to the media, the group said that this would be the first and last warning sent to the department before it takes action.
“If after this we the people of Sabah still get the lousy and awful service, and the water supply disruptions still happen especially in Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Sandakan, we will destroy the department’s website and erase all the data.
“Do not dare us or you will regret your actions,” the purported hacker group said in the letter.
Amarjit also spoke of a fake SWD Facebook account set up by an individual identified only as “Ahmad Tar”.
He said the Facebook page used lewd elements to mock the department’s logo and name.
“This is really childish. I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, but Datuk Peter Anthony advised me to be stern,” he said, referring to the state infrastructure development minister.
Amarjit, who was appointed to head the department last year, said that he had also lodged a report with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and requested that it trace the person behind the fake Facebook account.
“This is very serious and I take my department very seriously — nobody comes to my house and calls my department names. I’ve been working 24/7 — we are in the midst of changing a lot of things and we are doing our best to solve the problems of the department.
“This is not acceptable if you want to mock or complain, there are proper channels, you can even come to my office if you are not happy,” he said.
Amarjit said that electricity disruptions were also getting in the way of the department and its work.
“I hope to make changes before I go off in 2021, and I know it’s a huge task. But castles are not built in a day,” he said.
