Regional News
Hackers Take Down Thailand’s Defence Ministry’s Website
Maj Gen Kongcheep called for the group to stop doing so as it could cause damage to government agencies, as well as the country as a whole
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BANGKOK – Defense spokesman Maj Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich, has reported to Thai Media that group of people hack the Defense Ministry’s website in a symbolic protest against the amended Computer Crime Act, but the attacks did not cause much damage.
He did not give details of the attacks. The website was down as of 2.30pm on Monday, an attempt to access the Defense Ministry’s website by the Bangkok Post failed with “The following page has become unresponsive” error.
However it seems Defense Ministry’s web techs were able to resolve the problems from the hack and the website came online a few minutes later.
Maj Gen. Kongcheep said it was pointless for Thai people to cause damage to the country only because they lacked proper understanding of the computer crime law.
The junta-appointed lawmakers passed the bill in a unanimous vote on Friday amid heavy protests by several internet users’ groups, some of which have continued with the demonstrations.
Hacking into government website is not a way of dealing with the problem, he added.
According to Maj Gen Kongcheep, a group of people on Sunday tried to hack into the Defense Ministry’s website but failed because the ministry has a defense system.
“All armed forces are well-prepared to cope with this problem. The attempts only served to make us more vigilant. As for a report that foreign hackers have also joined the attacks, I would like to remind them that doing so is unlawful. Attacks on the financial, banking, transport and other systems will cause damage to all Thais,” he said.
Maj Gen Kongcheep said concerned agencies should also try to promote understanding with people that the computer crime law was not a single gateway policy.
The Citizens Against Single Gateway group has announced on its webpage “Thailand Internet Firewall #opsinglegateway” that it will step up attacks on government websites from Dec 20 in protest against the National Legislative Assembly’s endorsement of an amendment to the Computer Crime Act.
The group said that 168 members of the NLA, who were appointed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), voted on Friday to pass the amendment bill without paying attention to the voice of opposition from more than 360,000 people.
Following the passage of the amendment bill, a large number of Thai people and freedom-loving allies in other countries had shown opposition to the law.
Source: Bangkok Post
