After Indonesian preacher Abdul Somad Batubara was denied entry into Singapore on Monday, supporters of the Indonesian preacher spammed the social media accounts of a few Singapore political office holders and government organizations (May 16).
This was confirmed by a Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) spokesperson on Tuesday night. The spokesperson also said that there had been "calls for cyberattacks on Singapore Government social media accounts on public Indonesian chat groups." ".
President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan reportedly had their social media accounts flooded by the preacher's supporters.
Targeted accounts included Gov.sg and the Ministry of Law on Twitter, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore Tourism Board, and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority on Instagram.
Additionally, the websites of two event management businesses have also been defaced. The websites have subsequently been recovered, and SingCert will contact out to the affected firms to provide help, according to a spokeswoman for MCI.
MCI encouraged businesses to take proactive measures to improve their cybersecurity "posture" and enhance their online defenses in order to defend themselves from potential cyberattacks such as web defacement and distributed denial of service (DDoS).
"Singaporean organizations harmed by a cyberattack or with indications of a suspicious network breach should notify SingCert."
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated in a statement released on Tuesday that Mr. Somad, 44, was denied entry because he "is known to promote radical and segregationist beliefs, which are unacceptable in Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious society."
This was in reaction to Mr. Somad's accusations on Instagram and YouTube that the Singaporean government had "deported" him.
The next day, the Indonesia National Counter Terrorism Agency stated that Mr. Somad's refusal of entry into Singapore must serve as a lesson for Indonesia about the prevention of extremism.
According to a CNN Indonesia news report, agency head Brigadier-General Ahmad Nurwakhid stated that while Indonesia is in the stage of law enforcement against terrorism, Singapore is in the stage of "pre-emptive strike" or upstream measures "against potential threat due to radical thought, doctrine, and ideology."
He also stated that the Indonesia National Counter Terrorism Agency appreciated the Singaporean government's stance on Mr. Somad and that it would not intervene in the entry ban imposed on him and his group.
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