In today’s news: Cyber criminals have once again targeted nations states, this time with the Thai government as the victim.
News outlets are reporting this morning that several Thai government websites we hit by a suspected DDoS attack around 3pm GMT, or 10pm local time, yesterday. Websites were impossible to access for several hours, with the government restoring access by Thursday morning.
Unlike ordinary DDoS attacks that are usually orchestrated by a particular program or bot, Thai citizens were encouraged via social media on Wednesday to visit several government websites and continually refresh them, forcing an overload of visitors and the websites to crash. Top targets included the ministry of information, communications and technology, and the main government websites.
Although the motives of the attack have yet to be confirmed, it is suspected the attack was a protest against the Thai government’s plan to limit access to websites deemed inappropriate.
Nicknamed “The Great Firewall of Thailand”, tens of thousands of people have signed a petition opposing the proposal, a name that references the Great Firewall of China, referring to the Chinese government’s well established censorship over the internet. The Thai military government has increased censorship, blocked websites and criminally charged citizens over comments made online since seizing power midway through last year.
The attack comes not long after the OPM breach in the US in July, showing that governments are becoming an increasingly popular target for attacks, whether it be state on state, or what appears to be the case for this particular hack, individual protests.
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