Govt declares cyber war on hackers

The government has vowed to bring netizens who stage cyber attacks against state agency websites to justice.

Gp Capt Somsak Khaosuwan, deputy permanent secretary of the ICT Ministry, was speaking after activist hackers from the Anonymous collective claimed that on Nov 30 they penetrated secure Thai government computers and leaked private information from the Royal Thai Police (RTP), in a protest against the government’s plans to launch a single internet gateway.

The hackers aimed to discredit government agencies, though they have certain defensive systems in place, he said. The government earlier urged state agencies to prepare for cyber attacks.

Although attack intensity levels remain moderate, efforts will be made to solve the problem and bring the culprits to justice on a case-by-case basis, he said.

The government plans to develop a cyber warfare system, Gp Capt Somsak said, adding the cyber threat is now a national security concern.

Meanwhile, the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) said the reports that the RTP’s database was hacked were unfounded. TCSD chief Pol Maj Gen Supaseth Chokchai said no such information was raised at yesterday’s meeting of police commanders nationwide. “If a cyber attack had been launched against the RTP, I would know about it,” he said.

Anonymous claimed the attack on Nov 30 and tweeted a statement and link to password-protected files containing private information about police officers and file records.

The hacked website left a note for Thai authorities along with the computer “dump file” containing the stolen data, Anonymous reported. “To prove our point, we are demonstrating the inability of the Thai government to secure even their own police servers,” the message read.

“It is pitiful and should worry all of Thailand. Your police are protecting their files with passwords like 12345; it would be funny if it weren’t so sad.”

A number of police websites, including the Office of Police Strategy and Police Administration Information System, were briefly offline earlier this week, but online again yesterday afternoon.