The online directory page of Macao's Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) was hacked last Saturday, but has resumed normal operation hours later that day, according to a press statement released on Monday by the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government.

The SAR government said in the statement that since the hijacked website only provides public information, it dose not concern any leakage of internal information. However, Macao's Judiciary Police has launched an investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, the SAFP will run a security assessment of the government websites and will step up online security monitoring, according to the statement.

Lasting for at least four hours the web page, which is linked with the government's portal www.gov.mo, displayed an emblem of a rose and crescent moon with the inscription "We love Mohammed", and the hacker even signed the page with an email address, a13m@ bsdmail.org, a Macao Daily Times report said.

Websites in Macao had generally low security measures as "it was not a common place for hacking activities," the daily quoted Justin Wan Si-un, Information Technology Manager of the Macao Inter-University Institute, as saying.

He added that confidential information which will be uploaded in the Legal Affairs Bureau's upcoming real estate registry website could be at risk of being stolen if the government did not strengthen internet security.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 4, 2008)