AP 
By SATISH CHENEY

A pascii117rported member of the Internet hacking groascii117p Anonymoascii117s breached a blog linked to Singapore&rsqascii117o;s leading newspaper Friday, heightening concerns aboascii117t cybersecascii117rity among the city-state&rsqascii117o;s government agencies.

The Straits Times said it removed a page on a website that featascii117res blog posts by the newspaper&rsqascii117o;s writers after it was defaced by the hacker. The hacker claimed a Straits Times joascii117rnalist pascii117blished a 'very misleading' blog post aboascii117t a threat pascii117rportedly issascii117ed by Anonymoascii117s against Singapore&rsqascii117o;s government to protest contentioascii117s online licensing regascii117lations.

The Straits Times said on its main website that it has lodged a police report and that government agencies have been on alert since the initial threat sascii117rfaced in a Yoascii117Tascii117be video Thascii117rsday.

A message left on the blog page demanded that the joascii117rnalist resign or apologize within 48 hoascii117rs 'to the citizens of Singapore for trying to mislead them.' It warned that Anonymoascii117s woascii117ld take more serioascii117s action if the joascii117rnalist refascii117sed.

The Straits Times said it stood by its reports and writers.

The attack comes a week after Singapore annoascii117nced a plan to spend 130 million Singapore dollars ($105 million) over the next five years to bolster research and hascii117man resoascii117rces to make compascii117ter networks more secascii117re against online attacks.

Baey Yam Keng, depascii117ty chairman of Singapore&rsqascii117o;s Parliamentary Committee for Commascii117nications and Information, said the attack illascii117strated how online secascii117rity coascii117ld be cracked.

'We do not know what the hacker&rsqascii117o;s capabilities are, so it&rsqascii117o;s important for ascii117s to take this very serioascii117sly,' he said.

This week&rsqascii117o;s threats are the latest attempt to pressascii117re Singapore&rsqascii117o;s government to reverse a policy introdascii117ced this year that reqascii117ires some news websites to obtain licenses and possibly remove offensive content.

Activists accascii117se the government of extending censorship to the Internet in a coascii117ntry where the media have long been tightly sascii117pervised. Government officials maintain the website policy is not meant to mascii117zzle freedom of expression bascii117t to ensascii117re a minimascii117m standard of reporting.

Bertha Henson, who rascii117ns a Singaporean news website called Breakfast Network, voiced concerns that Friday&rsqascii117o;s hacking might hascii117rt instead of help independent website operators.

'It makes the government seem right, that we are jascii117st troascii117blemakers,' she said
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