A teenager in Sri Lanka has been arrested for hacking the president's website and posting a message demanding that his college entrance exams be postponed. As the AFP reports, the 17-year-old boy was arrested on Monday and faces a fine of 300,000 rupees ($2,000) and up to three years in jail.
As the BBC reports, the official website of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was hacked on Thursday and Friday last week by a group that calls itself Sri Lankan Youth. The group posted a message on Thursday demanding that April's final exams be delayed, and called on the president to "take care of the security of Sri Lankan websites or... face a cyber war." The group also demanded Sirisena "stop the prime minister's irresponsible work and look more into the problems of the university students." The message was taken down, but the site was hacked again shortly afterward.
According to the AFP, this is the first time that a teenager has been charged under Sri Lanka's computer crimes laws. Several government websites have been hacked recently, the BBC reports, raising concerns around cybersecurity. The unnamed boy has been taken into custody, and is being questioned by police.