Sea of flags
Cyberattack comes as anti-coup protesters jam Yangon roads
ANTI-COUP hackers attacked government websites to protest against the military coup, as the junta pressed on with its attempts to stymie nationwide opposition with Internet blockades and troop deployments.
The cyberattacks came a day after tens of thousands of people rallied across the country to protest against the generals toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government earlier this month.
A group called Myanmar Hackers disrupted websites including the Central Bank, the Myanmar military’s propaganda page, state-run broadcaster MRTV, the Port Authority, and the Food and Drug Administration.
“We are fighting for justice in Myanmar,” the group said on its Facebook page yesterday.
“It is like mass protesting of people in front of government websites.”
Cybersecurity expert Matt Warren from Australia’s RMIT University said it was likely the aim was to generate publicity.
“The sorts of attacks they would be undertaking are denial of service attacks or defacing websites which is called hacktivism,” he said.
“The impact will be potentially limited but what they are doing is raising awareness.”
Internet access was severely curtailed for the fourth night running at about 1am yesterday, according to NetBlocks, a Britain-based group that monitors Internet outages around the world.
It said connectivity had dropped to just 21% of ordinary levels, and was restored eight hours later ahead of the start of the working day.
“The practice is detrimental to public safety and incites confusion, fear and distress in difficult times,” NetBlocks tweeted.
Yesterday’s cyberattack came as Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai denied the news that China was helping Myanmar to build firewalls and sending IT experts and soldiers.
According to a statement from the embassy on Tuesday, he said reports about the Chinese government sending IT experts using Chinese planes to Myanmar to build its own firewall security system and that Chinese soldiers were seen on the streets in Myanmar were false.
“They are totally nonsense and the rumours about Chinese helping the Myanmar coup are laughable,” he said.
He said the planes were cargo planes operating regularly between Myanmar and China.
Most of the cargos are seafood sent from Myanmar to China, he added.
Chen said the photos showing IT experts, weapons and spices from China, which went viral on social media, are fake.
Meanwhile, for a second day, some motorists in Yangon blockaded roads with vehicles, leaving their bonnets up and pretending they were broken down to stop security forces from moving around Myanmar’s biggest city.
Buses and cars could be seen on live feeds parked around a bridge at North Dagon yesterday morning as protesters chanted: “Don’t attend the office, leave it. Join the civil disobedience movement.”
“We need the US Army to save our situation,” read a sign held by a monk in saffron robes.
Dozens of police patrolled the vicinity of Myaynigone junction as motorists also blocked roads.
“We gathered about five taxies and one pretended his car had broken down and blocked the street. Others also surrounded him. But we didn’t stay long. We blocked (for) about 30 minutes,” said a 30-year-old taxi driver.
“We are doing this to cause difficulties for police. If they come and it’s a little bit tense, we leave then.”