How online gambling infiltrated Thai govt websites to bypass betting ban

[webfact]

 

Hackers working for online gambling platforms have hijacked the webpages of many Thai government agencies and turned them into portals for illegal gaming sites.

 

Websites of state agencies under all 20 ministries have been infiltrated by the hackers, said Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn. More than 30 million URLs of state-agency websites were found to have been corrupted, he said last Friday (Feb 17).

 

The hackers managed to plant malicious scripts that linked to online gambling websites, the minister explained. The script, which contains keywords for online gambling and links to gaming platforms, caused state agency webpages hijacked by online gambling websites to appear among the top Google search results.

 

115 websites targeted by gang

 

In late November, police raided a house in Bangkok’s Bang Khun Thian district and arrested 15 people suspected of hacking government websites to plant links to an online gambling platform they were working for. After examining computers used by the suspects, police found that they had infiltrated over 115 state agency websites.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/how-online-gambling-infiltrated-thai-govt-websites-to-bypass-betting-ban/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-02-25

 

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[edwinchester]

One hopes the Govt will be asking their website designers why all of the webpages they have presumably paid alot of money for appear to be so vulnerable to online hackers.

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, edwinchester said:

One hopes the Govt will be asking their website designers why all of the webpages they have presumably paid alot of money for appear to be so vulnerable to online hackers.

Their early tracking efforts for Covid left a lot to be desired with terrible security holes IIRC. 

[bamnutsak]

I was a bit suspicious when during my 90-day on-line report filing I was offered odds on it being accepted or rejected.

 

 

[Bangkok Barry]

Don't worry. Thailand will join the 21st century cyberworld eventually. Not sure when as the alien word 'maintenance' was used in the linked article.

[topt]

4 hours ago, edwinchester said:

One hopes the Govt will be asking their website designers why all of the webpages they have presumably paid alot of money for appear to be so vulnerable to online hackers.

if one reads the linked article in full it pretty much explains it.............

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Well uh, any of us lads whose wife's been not in the mood, on the rag, etc., leaving us to turn to certain online forms of "entertainment" (which are also supposedly all banned), has been bombarded with elaborate ad campaigns for all sorts of illegal online gambling. They're offered to anyone in Thailand, in English and Thai, with bonuses for quick and easy bank transfers, some will even take TrueMoney you can top up at 7-11.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Websites of state agencies under all 20 ministries have been infiltrated by the hackers, said Digital Economy and Society Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn. More than 30 million URLs of state-agency websites were found to have been corrupted,

Ooooop's 

[radiochaser]

Make jokes if you will.   I did a search and found that the Thai immigration website was hacked for gambling as well as Thai police websites.   Someone else could, if not already done, hack that website and steal information of people entering or leaving Thailand. 

From looking all the other Thai government websites, pulled up with an internet search engine that have been hacked, it seems that it is only a matter of time that someone hacks the Thai government websites for identity theft reasons, again, if not already done. 

I have already had identity theft done  to me.  From a government website, one that I would not have expected to be compromised.   The U.S. of A. government website Office of Personnel Management, that held personal information of people to run background investigations for those that needed security clearances.   Information that for me was literally from birth to then current, plus background information on parents.  If I recall correctly I was informed that data on 3 million security clearances was stolen.   

The Federal Government paid for two, different, credit watch companies to watch for illegal applications for credit in my name.  Three weeks after I left Thailand after that, both my credit cards had been canceled.  When I contacted my credit card company I was told that someone claiming to be me, claimed to be traveling in Europe through 4 or 5 different countries and was going to use the credit cards.   They knew all personal data about me!  I don't know if that was related, but I believe it was. 

Edited March 1, 2023 by radiochaser