Some government websites were inaccessible last Saturday because of routing issues and a hardware failure that occurred during maintenance work, said the Infocom Development Authority (IDA) on Monday.

At no point were these websites - including the police and ministries of Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs sites - the target of cyber attacks, a spokesman said at a press conference.

An IDA statement said that government agencies have been on "heightened vigilance" and have enhanced the security of their IT systems in response to the threats made against the government's information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.

Last week, someone claiming to be part of the global hacker group Anonymous posted an online video threatening the government that it would unleash "a legion of Anonymous" upon "your tiny little island and infrastructures. It will be like dipping yourselves into a pool of piranhas".

This was if the Government did not reconsider the regulations of the licensing framework for news sites.

It also called on Singaporeans to join its protest by dressing fully in black and red on Nov 5 "to paint your streets with the colours that represent the current Singaporeans emotion".

On Saturday, maintenance work on the government's ICT took place from 1pm to 3pm during which a glitch occurred because of the routing and hardware issues.This was rectified by 5.20pm, said IDA.

The statement added that over the next few days, while maintenance is in progress, some Government sites may experience intermittent access.