Don't do it again, ICT minister warns single gateway attackers (Updated)

The ICT Ministry is not planning legal action against the organisers of Wednesday's "denial of service" attacks on key government websites, but they should understand that others might, ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said yesterday.

Please join us on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning

Here is an update from our online and print reporters on the protest against the government's single internet gateway plan. The graphic explains in detail what happened and why.

Don't do it again, ICT minister warns single gateway attackers

The ICT Ministry is not planning legal action against the organisers of Wednesday's "denial of service" attacks on key government websites, but they should understand that others might,  ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said yesterday.

"We understand the protest on Wednesday was meant as a symbolic move to oppose the concept of a single gateway, so the ministry will not take any legal action against them," he said

Mr Uttama, who has been in the post only a little over a month, urged netizens to stop attacking state websites again because it will affect people trying to access information and contacts they need.

"If they do it again and a third party presses charges, we will need to abide by the law," he said.

Meanwhile, it does appear that plans for a single gateway were underway before Wednesday's attacks. A source quoted by the Bangkok Post said the ICT Ministry was instructed to accelerate the development of a single gateway and report progress to the prime minister this month, in line with a cabinet resolution on Aug 4 ordering agencies to complete projects including the single gateway by the end of the 2015 fiscal year.

Thailand now has 10 international internet gateways, with a total international bandwidth of 1,954 gigabits per second, according to Nectec data as of Sept 7.

Thursday's story

As of 7am this morning, I was still not able to access the ICT ministry's site and the main government website. The defence ministry's website was running, however. The main government site then came back online about 7:15am.

Single gateway protest halts government websites

POST REPORTERS

Internet users Wednesday night protested the plans for a single gateway by attacking and bringing down the main websites of the prime minister, the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.

Communications experts said "denial of service" attacks flooded the three sites, effectively making them impossible to access.

The sites appeared to be restored at the opening of business Thursday morning.

The three sites went offline at about 10pm Wednesday, after netizens warned they intended to attack, and the government said such attacks would be treated as violations of the Computer Crime Act.

The ICT deputy permanent secretary, Somsak Khaosuwan, claimed his ministry's site did not crash because of an attack, but because it was overloaded by visitors monitoring the planned attack.

Sites affected as of early Wednesday were the main government information website http://www.thaigov.go.th/ , the ICT ministry's site at http://mict.go.th/ and the defence ministry's website, http://www.mod.go.th/Home.aspx.

Also knocked out briefly were the websites of the state-owned TOT Plc, the firm likely to host any single gateway if it is installed, CAT Telecom and the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc)

The last site to recover early Thursday morning was the MICT website, possibly because authorities had actually taken it offline.

Warnings on Wednesday afternoon from credible sources in the Thai hacking community said they planned to attack government websites to protest the recent disclosure of government plans to reduce internet access to a single gateway, controlled by CAT Telecom Co.

It appeared that the government site takedowns were by internet users, who answered calls on social media to go on online and continuously click refresh, causing overloads on the three targeted sites.

The simultaneous denial-of-service attack works like normal attacks by over-exceeding a website's capacity to handle internet traffic.

But whereas normal attacks are carried out by a program or bot, Wednesday night's protest was carried out by thousands of online users.

After the secret plan was accidentally disclosed by a government press release, authorities sent out Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Junthong to try to spin the plan. He said that the single gateway initiative was only a proposition and that no "firm decisions have been made."

Critics of the plan idea contend it will take away freedom of information, with some even comparing it to the tightened grip of a communist country.

A change.org petition opposing the single gateway initiative passed 100,000 signatures as of Wednesday.

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/714492/single-gateway-protest-takes-down-govt-websites