Mission Ready

Lifting the Lid: A Race Against Time by ISD

Home Team

ISD

7 March 2022

In this exclusive first-person interview, an ISD Computer Forensics Investigator shares how he and his team worked to thwart JI's terror attacks in Singapore.

Illustrated: man types at PC, woman watches. Map of SE Asia with red squares on wall.

ILLUSTRATIONS: Dayana Yakob

December 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of operations by the Internal Security Department (ISD) against the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Singapore. The operation crippled the group and thwarted its many plots to carry out terror attacks here.

Many Singapore JI operatives had received training from terrorists in Afghanistan or the southern Philippines, and possessed the skills and technical know-how to conduct devastating attacks. Had the group succeeded in its plans, it would have resulted in a catastrophic loss of life and damage to Singapore’s social fabric.

Among the ISD officers who worked tirelessly for many months on the operation was a Computer Forensics Investigator named Eric (not his real name). In this exclusive interview with Home Team News, he recalls how he and his fellow officers raced against time to contain the threat posed by JI in Singapore.

You can call me Eric. I’m in my 50s now, and I’ve served as a Computer Forensics Investigator with ISD for over 20 years.

I was in my second year of service when 9/11 happened. A few days after the attacks in the United States, we were alerted to a lead by a vigilant member of the public that Mohammad Aslam bin Yar Ali Khan, a Singaporean of Pakistani descent, had links to Al-Qaeda.

Two book covers: Tactics of Modern Warfare, Jungle Warfare, knives, and throwing stars.

“Time was of the essence…”

We began watching Aslam and his associates. That was when we discovered the existence of the Singapore JI cell. What was even more shocking was that this group was in close contact with foreign terrorist elements. They even wanted to procure ammonium nitrate to make bombs.

Time was of the essence. Any misstep or delay on our part could result in a serious loss of lives.

Hitting the Jackpot
As part of our operations, my team and I had to analyse the items we’d seized from the group and surface any incriminating materials for further investigations. Not only were we racing against the clock, we had to make sense of the huge volume of seized items. What made our work even harder was that the JI was quite creative in covering its tracks.

Two hands holding a green floppy disk with a red label.

“The Excel worksheet on the diskette was empty. However, the size of the file was suspiciously large for a seemingly empty document...”

Through sheer determination and hard work, we were able to retrieve information that was crucial to our operations. A memorable example was a diskette that we found at the home of a JI operative. When we brought it back for further analysis, we found that the Excel worksheet on the diskette was empty. However, the size of the file was suspiciously large for a seemingly empty document.

Spreadsheet on screen, red edits, two hands typing on keyboard.

“I started scanning each page from the back and, around the 10,000th page, we hit the jackpot…”

Back then, Excel had a maximum capacity of 65,000 rows, or 38,000 A4 pages. There was no way we could comb through all of this manually, given what little time we had. By applying some creativity and following our instincts, we came up with an Excel hack to convert all the cells in the file into printable pages – which came up to over 10,000 pages.

I started scanning each page from the back and, around the 10,000th page, we hit the jackpot – several lines of numbers and text, which turned out to be JI’s financial records.

Another time, we managed to recover an older version of a Microsoft Word document that had been overwritten. It contained the organisational structure of JI. This document was stored in a part of a hard drive that contained data which has been erased or overwritten. Recovering this information required careful planning, certain technical skills and a little bit of luck.

Thankfully, my passion for technology makes forensics work enjoyable. Computer forensics allows me to analyse digital devices and recover evidence to support our investigations, allowing us to corroborate or disprove a suspect’s account of events.

Facing Defiance
While I wasn’t involved in frontline operations, my Operations colleagues shared that it was certainly no walk in the park. While many of the JI members did eventually cooperate with us, several were initially defiant and even violent. A colleague who was searching for evidence in the home of a JI operative was kicked by him. Others refused to cooperate with us and remained tight-lipped.

Thankfully, we persevered and managed to establish a rapport with the arrested JI members, and several of them eventually disclosed what they knew of JI’s organisational structure.

Map of Southeast Asia with red pins; hand touches the map.

“The JI network was transnational, spanning Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia …”

That was when we realised that the JI network was transnational, spanning Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. JI wanted to establish an Islamic State (also known as a Daulah Islamiyah) in the region through the use of violence. Their goal was to destabilise Singapore by launching terror attacks and creating conditions that would allow them to take over.

After the 9/11 attacks, they were motivated by Al-Qaeda’s success and wanted to prove that they were also capable of carrying out such attacks. But they failed to realise that their understanding of affairs was distorted and violated the true teachings of Islam.

Code screen with a red fingerprint under a teal magnifying glass.

“We’ll continue to watch developments closely and work with our community and international partners to address emerging threats...”

Continued Vigilance
Twenty years on, the JI threat in Singapore has been neutralised. Yet we must continue to stay vigilant. The prevalence of social media, coupled with the disruptions caused by COVID-19, presents new opportunities for extremists to share harmful ideas.

Given the heightened risk of being exposed to extremist content, we’ll continue to watch developments closely and work with our community and international partners to address emerging threats.

I’d like to urge members of the public to be vigilant and help keep Singapore safe by reporting any suspicious behaviours or signs of radicalisation. As was the case in 2001, information from the public can be vital to stopping a terrorist attack.

I’m glad that my passion for technology has played a role in keeping Singapore safe and secure. Even after 20 years with ISD, my work continues to be exciting, unpredictable and rewarding!

20th Anniversary of ISD’s Security Operation Against JI in Singapore
On 8 December 2001, ISD launched a security operation against the JI network in Singapore. While the Singapore JI has been effectively dismantled, the regional JI network is still active and presents a serious, long-term security threat to Singapore. As such, ISD continues to keep a close watch on the threat posed by JI and other terrorist groups. For more on ISD’s operation against JI, check out: