Hackers hit Malaysian sites over Indonesia flag gaffe

Jakarta : Indonesian hackers Monday claimed responsibility for attacking more than 30 Malaysian websites following a gaffe that saw Indonesia's flag printed upside-down in a Southeast Asian Games commemorative magazine.

Malaysia's SEA Games organisers sparked outrage in Indonesia when news of the misprint came to light at Saturday's opening ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesia's flag has a red stripe above a white stripe, but it was printed with the white stripe on top, making it look like the flag of Poland.

Malaysia's foreign ministry and event organisers apologised profusely for the blunder but it was not enough to quell a wave of complaints online, with #ShameOnYouMalaysia becoming Indonesia's top trending topic on Twitter.

A group of hackers calling themselves the ExtremeCrew ratcheted up the neighbourly tiff by defacing 33 Malaysian websites.

They posted an image of the upside-down flag in the games booklet along with the message "My national flag is not a plaything".

Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab, chief executive of CyberSecurity Malaysia, said authorities were looking into the attacks.

"The incident is real and we are doing the investigation, monitoring and working closely with other agencies to mitigate this incident," he said in a statement.

Indonesian national police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said it was unclear the perpetrators were Indonesian.

"If they need our assistance of course we are ready to help but it's still not confirmed these hackers are even Indonesians," he told AFP.