I had no ill-motive: hacker Shahee Mirza

Twenty-one year old Shahee Mirza denied any ill-motive on Sunday behind his hacking of the RAB website, after the Rapid Action Battalion arrested the young IT student from his Mirpur home along with three friends.

Dhaka, Sept 7 (bdnews24.com) — Twenty-one year old Shahee Mirza has denied any ill-motive behind his hacking of the RAB website.

Rapid Action Battalion arrested Shahee, along with three friends, Saturday night. The four youths were produced before journalists alongside RAB director general Hasan Mahmud Khandoker at the force's headquarters on Sunday.

The website www.rab.gov.bd was sabotaged Friday night forcing RAB to temporarily shut down the site. As people entered the website of the elite security force, they found the words 'Hacked by Shahee_Mirza' posted there.

Shahee, a fourth-year student of Saic Institute of Management and Technology in Mirpur, denied any ill-motive behind the hacking.

He said he did it "playfully" and added that his friends were not involved with the hacking.

RAB chief Hasan Mahmud Khandoker said they managed to retrieve the website within 24 hours of the sabotage.

RAB commander Md Mainul Haque said Shahee had earlier hacked websites of at least 22 organisations, including one site belonging to the army.

The hackers will be punished according to information and communication technology laws, Haque said.

The arrestees might face 10 years in jail, Tk 1 crore in fines or both, if proved guilty, the RAB official added.

Shahee, 'leader' of the four arrested, confessed to hacking other sites belonging to different organisations, said RAB.

He claimed he had not encountered any reaction so far from the organisations whose websites he had previously hacked. He also claimed he had no knowledge of the laws relating to hacking.

The young hacker said he never did it for any financial benefit. "I just happened to learn how to get into other systems though working with computers," he said.

Shahee's, whose father is a sub-inspector of police, has an elder brother who is a doctor and younger sister who is a student of Class X.

"I now realise that I have committed a crime. I do not want anybody to commit such crimes like me," Shahee said.

Earlier in the day, RAB media cell director Abul Kalam Azad told bdnews24.com that they picked up four youths including Shahee from a Mirpur residence Saturday night.

The name and e-mail address Shahee had posted after hacking the RAB site were found to be real.

The hacker, in a message left on the site, alleged that the government had not taken sufficient steps for the development of IT in the country, though it had passed laws to prevent cyber crimes.

Shahee claimed: "You don't know what cyber security is and you don't know how to protect yourselves either."

"Hackers are no criminals, but they happen to be at least ten times better than your (RAB) experts. You guys can't even perceive how meritorious we are," the young hacker said.

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