Thai Police Seize Internet Chat Logs

[webfact]

Thai cyber police seize internet chat logs

Internet Data Center. File photo.

BANGKOK: -- More than 20 police from the Economic and Cyber-Crime Division (ECOTEC) have raided the offices of Thai state-owned telecommunications company CAT Telecom and confiscated chat-room conversation records and a server.

Police Lieutenant General Tha-ngai Prasajaksatru, commander of the ECOTEC, said the raid at CAT Tower yesterday, March 3, focused on the Internet data centre and was in response to a radical pro-Thaksin supporter accessing the server to instigate political violence.

Lieutenant General Tha-nga said that on February 26, Pornwat Thongsomboon, widely known as 'K. Thong' accessed a chat room titled 'Voice of Change’ and posted a video clip issuing a bomb threat and stated “the civil war has commenced”. The video also urged investors to withdraw their investments from the stock market.

The day after the message was posted four Bangkok Bank branches in the national capital were attacked with hand grenades, followed by a further series of bomb attacks on banks in the southern province of Narathiwat on Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Tha-nga said the message was intended to damage national security and create social unrest, which is a violation of the Computer Crime Act.

He said the contents of the confiscated server will be inspected by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in an attempt to identify the IP address of K. Thong, or any other people posting items in breach of the Computer Crime Act, and if they were able to be identified they will be summoned for questioning.

-- thaivisa.com 2010-03-04

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Wolfie]

Big brother...

Yeah curse them, curse Big Brother for trying to catch someone who is making bomb threats/warnings and causing Civil Unrest - how dare they infringe on peoples human rights to do this!

[99BigLad99]

I am sure most posters dont realise the history details kept on servers could be quite damming

[george]

Police Search Internet Server Company for Evidence of Violence Instigation

BANGKOK: -- Police have searched the Internet data centre inside the CAT Tower, after a radical pro-Thaksin supporter accessed the server to instigate political violence linked to the recent grenade attacks in Bangkok.

Yesterday (March 3rd), more than 20 police officers from the Economic and Cyber-Crime Division or ECOTEC searched the Internet data centre inside the CAT Tower.

During the search, the police officers discovered a server with a chat room program called 'Voice of Change'. The computer sever has been confiscated as evidence.

Commander of the ECOTEC, Police Lieutenant-General Tha-ngai Prasajaksatru, has revealed that on February 26th, a day prior to the grenade attacks at Bank of Bangkok's four branches in the capital, Pornwat Thongsomboon, widely known as 'K.

Thong' accessed the chat room to circulate a video clip issuing a bomb threat and declaring that the 'civil war' has commenced.

Also in the video clip, Pornwat urges investors to withdraw their investments from the stock market.

Tha-ngai claims the message is false and intended to damage national security and to create social unrest, which considered a violation of the Computer Crime Act.

The confiscated computer will be thoroughly inspected by the Information and Communication Technology Ministry.

The owner of the computer will later be summoned by the authorities for questioning.

-- Tan Network 2010-03-04

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[junglist]

Big brother...

Thank you Big Brother get rid of scum like this. Good work!!!

[eljeque]

Any computer geeks out there?

Would it make more sense to go to the internet company site with the chat rooms?

And /or would it be easier to do their work while the server is stilll connected and running?

Sounds like the are doing a little overkill on this one.

[anon467367354]

I always wanted an older big brother. this one actually seems to be on our side. Works for me! Nice to see something is being done about cleaning up this mess. Make an example out these troublemakers. mai mii bpen haa

[Insight]

Any computer geeks out there?

Would it make more sense to go to the internet company site with the chat rooms?

And /or would it be easier to do their work while the server is stilll connected and running?

Sounds like the are doing a little overkill on this one.

You could, but it is probably easier to analyse the traffic to and from such sites to the machines at CAT, especially if the web server is outside Thailand. No permits required.

[slim]

and you'll be quite happy when they close down Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Twitter etc etc like they have in Iran and China will you?

[animatic]

Thanks for stating that Wolfie.

...

focused on the Internet data centre and was in response to a radical pro-Thaksin supporter

accessing the server to instigate political violence..

.

Says it all right there.

And also explains several members of TFV acting and posting as the typically do.

There is a MUCH worse big brother who wants to run the country,

and some of us post to counter his spurious and divisive PR campaign.

A lie un-refuted can eventually become believed as the truth...

a lie as such can't be left to stand.

[johncitizen]

More golden oldies from the playbook. This article has two purposes- linking the bombings with the Red-Shirts, and cracking down on dissidents as indicated in the last line of the article...

"in an attempt to identify the IP address of K. Thong, or any other people posting items in breach of the Computer Crime Act, and if they were able to be identified they will be summoned for questioning."

The junta is losing the battle for legitimacy and will soon give up on seeking it. Prepare for Burma mk. 2!

EDIT: I find the tone of some of the bloggers here simply terrifying- you'll allow every one of your rights to be taken away as long as it only affects people you disagree with. I'll be looking for you among the frenzied lynch mobs stuffing shoes down the throats of the hanging democracy-activists. Wake up, and don't allow history to repeat itself.

Edited March 4, 2010 by johncitizen

[Gimbo]

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin.

Have fun in the Police state....

[angiud]

Good job! Take them all!

[givenall]

Big brother...

Yeah curse them, curse Big Brother for trying to catch someone who is making bomb threats/warnings and causing Civil Unrest - how dare they infringe on peoples human rights to do this!

No sympathy for people who use violence to get their way. These people are arrogant and don’t care about any laws and other people wellbeing and need to be dealt with harshly. Especially the people are hiding in other country and preach peafull protest and then support and pay for these sh..t

[davethesailor]

Big brother is wonderful.

Until they come knocking on your door with a list of illegal sites that are not acceptable for viewing here.

[RKASA]

You can't yell fire in a theater, its not free speech. While his stock market recommendation may have been missing the normal disclosure statements of personnel choice, promoting others to do violence is wrong. They have not closed any web sites just copy of the routing to show from where and when, phone companies do it all the time. by whom is more difficult. If he is in the video that is evidence. but the part of posting, Well nobody on the internet knows your a dog.

[Insight]

If such a video appeared on YouTube aimed at UK government and civilians, you can be pretty sure the UK police will be knocking on the doors of a fair few ISP's attempting to trace the source.

I disagree with censorship, but that isn't happening in this case. Nothing going on here you wouldn't expect to happen back home.

[mythBuster]

It is is after all no surprise that Thailand has dropped to spots just behind Zimbabwe and Burma on the press freedom lists since the last putsch.

[SeanMoran]

Thoughtless, ignorant (knee)-jerk response.

It does seem like rather a longshot to pickup someone's own home IP address when I can take this little laptop in its bag on my shoulder and walk up to Tesco Lotus and sit there on their free wifi doing fairly much anything anonymously.

If someone is foolish enough to start inciting a civil war from their home ADSL, it's probably in their best interests that they get arrested and thrown in jail where they won't have ADSL to harm themselves anymore.

[swervie2000]

I agree...nice job!! Now if they only get rid of those annoying pubescent MSN trouble makers and pseudo hackers they have here...

[Acharn]

Big brother...

This is precisely the reason for the Thai Security Act created a few short years ago, which requires Service Providers to log any web transactions/IP address/time/duration of open connection/etc.

If they are going after a particular criminal that is masterminding threats against the nation and it's people, then go for it. Assuming they have credible reasoning to seize assets for inspection.

My only question would be what are they going to do with the other data found that doesn't relate to the current investigation, and almost as important, if they took CAT's server, did they replace it allowing CAT to continue to operate any service located on this box.

Who do you think is "they"? Of course they don't replace the server. The whole point of the law is to intimidate service providers, who actually can't do anything to prevent the acts the police say were done. Since CAT is actually a government-owned enterprise they may very well get their server back in a few years. Or they may not. Hey, the money comes from the ISPs, remember? Who have to pay CAT 32% of their gross earnings.

[animatic]

The men at the center of all of this:

according to http://www.thaisewana.org/news

Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, Thaksin, and Pornwat Thongsomboon or K. Thong

One is often judged by the company one keeps.

[mitrapaap]

asiawatcher, l bet you wish you'd stayed in bed.

Of course they are doing the right thing but to tell the media and the terrorists doesn't make sense, unless it's just a warning to stop using sites. Thought better to stay in the background and search for the terrorists on sights than to warn them off.

Can somebody tell me why Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol is still walking around?

[RKASA]

The men at the center of all of this:

according to http://www.thaisewana.org/news

Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, Thaksin, and Pornwat Thongsomboon or K. Thong

One is often judged by the company one keeps.

notice the date is cropped.

[animatic]

Pulling the server prevents the 'mal bot' from receiving a self destruct messages,

and thus erasing links for it's communications to other servers.

No doubt this is a slave program of another master control program.

They have no secured evidence from tampering.

[johncitizen]

The responses on this thread are enlightening when one wonders why the extra-judicial drug killings were applauded by 90% of Thai people.

When are they going to make "Scum of the Earth" the official yellow shirt anthem?

[Wolfie]

When are they going to make "Scum of the Earth" the official yellow shirt anthem?

When the reds choose something different and it becomes available

[whiterussian]

I am sure most posters dont realise the history details kept on servers could be quite damming

Its not just what you write, its who your pals are, what music you listen to, movies you watch, what flash graphics you see, if you have a google account - the websites you search for, the list is endless... Its a fascists dream!

No wonder the German government doesn't use MS Windows!

Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 category-defining companies including: Admob, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Foundry, Gameforge, Glam, Macromedia, Omneon, MetroPCS, Riverbed, RealNetworks, Trulia, Veritas, etc

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

The third board member of Facebook is Jim Breyer. He is a partner in the venture capital firm Accel Partners. On the board of such US giants as Wal-Mart and Marvel Entertainment, he is also a former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) - A partnership with department of defence.

Facebook's most recent round of funding was led by a company called Greylock Venture Capital, who put in the sum of $27.5m.

One of Greylock's senior partners is called Howard Cox, another former chairman of the NVCA, who is also on the board of In-Q-Tel.

What's In-Q-Tel? Well, believe it or not (and check out their website), this is the venture-capital wing of the CIA.

Another key figure in the In-Q-Tel team is Anita K Jones, former director of defence research and engineering for the US department of defence, and - with Breyer - board member of BBN Technologies.

Edited March 4, 2010 by whiterussian

[Vientianeboy]

Big brother...

Yeah curse them, curse Big Brother for trying to catch someone who is making bomb threats/warnings and causing Civil Unrest - how dare they infringe on peoples human rights to do this!

No sympathy for people who use violence to get their way. These people are arrogant and don't care about any laws and other people wellbeing and need to be dealt with harshly. Especially the people are hiding in other country and preach peafull protest and then support and pay for these sh..t

I guess you mean like the current Abhisit government.

[Jimi007]

It does seem like rather a longshot to pickup someone's own home IP address when I can take this little laptop in its bag on my shoulder and walk up to Tesco Lotus and sit there on their free wifi doing fairly much anything anonymously.

If someone is foolish enough to start inciting a civil war from their home ADSL, it's probably in their best interests that they get arrested and thrown in jail where they won't have ADSL to harm themselves anymore.

LOL! I totally agree with you on this! But they may find the MAC address of the computer involved...