Several .lk and .com websites belonging to the organizations including the Kuwait Embassy in Sri Lanka faced a cyber attack which resulted in web defacement, Information Security Engineer of Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) Ravindu Meegasmulla said.
The SLCERT came to know the incident on Saturday morning and steps were taken immediately to inform the relevant institutions, whose websites had been hacked, he said.
According to him, none of the gov.lk websites had been affected by this attack.
SLCERT together with the TechCERT and the Cyber Security Operation Unit of Sri Lanka Air Force are conducting the investigations into the crime to identify the attacker and when it happened, Meegasmulla said.
Legal action could be taken against them under the Computer Crime Act of Sri Lanka, he added.
According to him, the SLCERT is monitoring the websites in the country continuously and they normally find at least 3-5 websites hacked daily.
"But, attacking around 10 websites in a day is not a normal situation", he pointed out.
Meanehile, the Dailynews from a reliable source learnt that there is a tendency in launching a cyber attack by unknown hackers on Local websites on May 18 and 19 when the war hero commemoration is held.
Last year also a similar situation occurred and the SLCERT website on May 21, 2018 reported that " With the declaration of the National Remembrance Day on 18th May 2018, Sri Lanka CERT|CC was alerted to the fact that a number of Sri Lankan websites (.lk, .com & gov.lk) were defaced by separatist elements."
It also mentions that "Sri Lanka CERT|CC has observed an increase in the number of website defacements during this particular time in the past."
"The Hackers were targeting vulnerable websites to publish their messages. So, they were able exploit some vulnerability/vulnerabilities in a couple of websites, as was seen", it further said.
Pointing out that any situation could be occurred anytime, Meegasmulla requested the institutions to appoint an officer who could be reached easily by the SLCERT and inform the possible threats of cyber attacks.