This teenager hacked Sri Lankan President’s website to try to get the exam cancelled

As kids, we have done many things to avoid the exams like feigning stomachache or headache but none of us would have done what this kid did. A 17-year-old teenager reportedly hacked into his country’s president’s websites so that he could get the authorities to cancel the exam.

Sri Lankan police have arrested the teenager and accused him of hacking into President Maithripala Sirisena’s official website and posting a message calling for the postponement of A-level examinations.

President Sirisena’s website was hacked a week earlier and the hacker had posted a message calling for the postponement of exams. The police immediately swung into action and zeroed down on the boy who lives near the capital Columbo.

According to the police, the boy was taken into custody on Monday under computer crimes laws and on conviction faces a fine of $2,000 and up to three years in jail. “We traced the hack to his home in Kadugannawa,” a police official said, referring to a town about 100km (62 miles) east of the capital, Colombo. “The website was crippled over the weekend after the attack.”

Authorities worked overnight to fix the President’s hacked website and were able to restore it within 24 hours. The attacker had removed the home page and replaced it with a demand that the president postpone the ongoing GCE Advanced Level examinations or step down.

The name of the teenager was not disclosed as per Sri Lankan laws for juvenile crimes.