A minutes-long prank that unfolded in downtown Jakarta last week has resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old IT analyst, police in Indonesia’s capital city said Wednesday.
Authorities say Samudera Al Hakam Ralial admitted he was responsible for taking control of an internet-connected billboard in downtown Jakarta last Friday afternoon and briefly broadcasting a porn movie to passersby.
The cyber-stunt unfolded at the start of rush hour and shortly after prayer Friday, causing an uproar throughout Muslim-majority Indonesia where access to pornographic websites are largely blocked.
Jakarta’s chief of police, Mochamad Iriawan, said authorities traced the act back to the IT analyst and arrested him Tuesday in the downtown office where he allegedly committed the crime.
According to police, however, the suspect said the stunt didn’t require any sort of high level hacking. Instead, rather, he reportedly told police he was able to commandeer the 24-square-meter LED “Videotron” after the user name and password needed to access the billboard were blatantly advertised on the screen.
The suspect said he snapped a picture on his cellphone of the billboard as the credentials were displayed, then went to work last Friday and successfully logged on, the police chief said.
“That’s the suspect’s current testimony. We are still investigating it as we have not found the picture of the username and password in his cellphone,” the chief said. “He said he worked alone but we will also investigate that.”
As a result of the security breach, several minutes of the porn film “Watch Tokyo Hot” were broadcast on the billboard before authorities resorted to cutting off its power supply.
There are at 58 electronic billboards in South Jakarta, and Friday’s incident occurred on one not far from the mayor’s office, the city’s Post newspaper reported.
Investigators had interviewed at least 11 people, including employees of the billboard company, prior to making an arrest this week, the Associated Press reported. Police said previously that it had called upon the services of cybercrime specialists in conducing its investigation.
The alleged perpetrator will face a maximum prison sentence of six years if convicted under the Electronic Transaction Law, but could face double that amount if found guilty of violating a pornography law that prohibits “immoral acts,” the police chief said.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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