No shock, awe from 'cyber war' as 'national' gateway moves forward

[webfact]

No Shock, Awe from 'Cyber War' as ‘National' Gateway Moves Forward
By Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Staff Reporter


A display panel at the Royal Thai Army's cyber unit taken Sept. 9. Photo: WeLoveRTA.org

BANGKOK — Damage from an attack on government services online appeared limited today, while state-owned CAT Telecom said it will begin preparations to build a single gateway project that has been rebranded as a business-positive part of the kingdom’s “digital economy” strategy.

Online activists declared victory in the opening of their “cyber war” to punish the junta for not abandoning its ambition to route all traffic through a single channel, but their damage seemed limited to affecting certain systems of the army’s finance department.

“At 1:15pm, the Citizens Against Single Gateway claimed our victory in the first stage after our cyber war declaration,” the group wrote its latest statement posted online. “We made the financial accounting system of the Finance Department of the Royal Thai Armed Force Headquarters unable to work for more than three hours.”

The group had first called for supporters to overwhelm the department’s web server by reloading its pages, but changed tactics an hour and a half later to the online accounting system. Links to the accounting system do not work at time of publication. Its web site otherwise seemed to be unaffected.

Meanwhile state telecommunications operator CAT Telecom has said it is preparing to build what’s now being called by officials the “National Internet Gateway” project, promoted as a potential economic boon.

The term “national gateway” was first used days after the military seized power in 2014 when it announced its intention to “govern” inappropriate content online by constructing a single gateway for internet traffic in and out of Thailand.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1445519012&typecate=06&section=


-- Khaosod English 2015-10-23

[seahorse]

‘National' Gateway Moves Forward

And Thailand moves backward.

[BuckBee]

no way a single gateway can be an economic boon besides for CAT who will be getting some nice cash from the junta for this project.

dark times ahead unless someone with morals & true dignity can come to light & shadow the current & past elected & coup government halfwits & thieves .

[Thai at Heart]

Goodnight. See you all sometime

[smedly]

stupidity (reconcilliation) has no bounds

[thesetat2013]

It really is a shame that their cyber attacks didnt work. Perhaps they should be going after others who stand to profit from this idea or that will motivate the Gov more. . Affecting tourism has been the most effective way to motivate and make changes so far, As I recall during the protests that closing of Gov offices had absolutely NO affect on the Gov operations so this attack on their websites will be almost the same. I think nothing the people will do will make a difference though if Mr. P decides this is the only way to censor everyone. His power using articles is all it will take. It really is a shame too as it will affect all the people and not just Thais. I just hope we will still be afforded the use of proxies or VPNs to bypass their censorship. Businesses will take a dive in their overseas business. The internet is already slow as it is. What a shame for Mr. P to the world with his speeches about peoples rights and freedoms. Thailand is making changes for the betterment of the people but this one change is a huge step backwards and has nothing to do with bettering the people.

[chainarong]

One suggest that all political parties at the next Democratic held ??? elections, all have as a policy the disbandment of this system and revert to the status quo , there is very little that can be said about this intimidation and if PM Prayut-O thought the Junta was winning any friends, think again, the only ones who would support this Gateway would be the brown noses, Thailand's junta , with this system, is treading on dangerous ground.

[Pittsburgher]

Once this policy turns into reality there will only be one webpage left in the entire country!

www.bringbacktheporn.co.th

[EJK]

Question is what excuse are they going to use when the country turn on them for destroying there budiness and international marketing on behalf of a vein ruler

Your 5 year plan you speak like you had never any intentions to give opportunity back to democracy

I think in the end you will be in history books anyway

Looking forward to election time

[EJK]

Who is that loon that said FB will want to put a server here ?

Are you honestly in charge of this gateway

God please help you

[Thailand]

It's sad to see this beautiful country being thrust years backwards, unfortunately there seems to be no one with a modicum of sense that can reverse current trends.

[bangkokheat]

Why not spend the time and money, on reducing the wholesale carnage on the roads! They always want to run before they can walk.

surely you meant they want to race before they can drive

[smedly]

Why not spend the time and money, on reducing the wholesale carnage on the roads! They always want to run before they can walk.

this all comes down to being in charge of an insignificant military and having little or nothing to do for decades and history shows when Thailand could have actually done something in the past - capitulated, it is called power rot - from the movie "police academy" - we have many many men

[canuckamuck]

No shock and awe, But my internet is totally screwed for the last couple of days. Don't know if it's the hackers or changes related to the Juntawall.

But we can still put the blame on the guy who is waging a war on criticism (free speech).

Edited October 23, 2015 by canuckamuck

[Hawk]

Obviously this present but illegal government has no intentions, and never has, of returning Thailand to a democracy.

But eventually the hand of fate will strike him down.

[Thailand]

No shock and awe, But my internet is totally screwed for the last couple of days. Don't know if it's the hackers or changes related to the Juntawall.

But we can still put the blame on the guy who is waging a war on criticism (free speech).

I guess if the likes of anonymous pick up on this then it will be a very different scenario.

[dageurreotype]

What this silly article fails to mention is that CAT was targeted by the international group that is Anonymous, and thousands of their customers logins, passwords, Thai IDs and much more were compromised. I'm happy I don't have a CAT account. Do you?

[Chicken George]

This could be The Straw that broke the camels back..

[Sutty]

Well sorry but it hasn't and from what I read and for what I do online won't affect little old me on any way so no big deal as far as I'm concerned and most Thais I speak to don't really care either way and before you come back with "most Thais in village don't understand" yes they do they have a great understanding as most now use Internet for there small businesses. Let them do what they want to do call it what you will single gateway whatever it will not impact 99.9% of Farangs here as we don't work or have a business here. Unless of course you use certain websites for your gratification of course.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Sutty

[johnno2]

^{absolute power corrupts, ask thaksin.}

[johnno2]

Well sorry but it hasn't and from what I read and for what I do online won't affect little old me on any way so no big deal as far as I'm concerned and most Thais I speak to don't really care either way and before you come back with "most Thais in village don't understand" yes they do they have a great understanding as most now use Internet for there small businesses. Let them do what they want to do call it what you will single gateway whatever it will not impact 99.9% of Farangs here as we don't work or have a business here. Unless of course you use certain websites for your gratification of course.

if the internet stops working because the government decides it needs stopping, it will affect you and everyone else in the village

[gandalf12]

Be interesting to see what happens when the gateway goes down and it affects business

[Sutty]

Well sorry but it hasn't and from what I read and for what I do online won't affect little old me on any way so no big deal as far as I'm concerned and most Thais I speak to don't really care either way and before you come back with "most Thais in village don't understand" yes they do they have a great understanding as most now use Internet for there small businesses. Let them do what they want to do call it what you will single gateway whatever it will not impact 99.9% of Farangs here as we don't work or have a business here. Unless of course you use certain websites for your gratification of course.

if the internet stops working because the government decides it needs stopping, it will affect you and everyone else in the village

Oh shock horror what if tactics start. It hasn't happened why try to scare munger before anything has happened.

If the sun blows up we will all die but is that likely !!!!!

[Krataiboy]

Last one to leave turn off the lights.

[mike324]

how many billions will be spent again? Seriously Thailand is better off handing out free cash to its citizens then try to start any scheme or campaign. But oh wait, most of the things they do is to benefit themselves and their corrupt friends...backwards we continue to move..

[Usernames]

This is the reason I rarely post in the Thailand News forum or even click "like" here.

[rjcampbe]

Does anyone on here have the technical knowledge to explain what this really means in practical terms??

The whole online world is a series of cat an mouse games... someone encrypts something, someone else cracks the encryption... they block access to something, we load a vpn and access it anyway...

What is the realistic impact of this, assuming it ever actually gets implemented. (which is seriously doubt...)

[TKDfella]

It's lies all the way...I'd say the junta should be ashamed but then I don't think they ever had such a feeling. A power grabbing mob not concerned whether it hurts it own countryman or not.

[Snig27]

What this silly article fails to mention is that CAT was targeted by the international group that is Anonymous, and thousands of their customers logins, passwords, Thai IDs and much more were compromised. I'm happy I don't have a CAT account. Do you?

Yes indeed - there was a substantial and very successful attack yesterday. The military has yet to understand that just making stuff up and printing it does not make it true. Then, I guess the whole point of a single gateway is to ensure that they can lie as they wish and nobody will challenge it. This whole thing has just gone global and Herr General will look even sillier than he already does beyond these shores.

[smedly]

Does anyone on here have the technical knowledge to explain what this really means in practical terms??

The whole online world is a series of cat an mouse games... someone encrypts something, someone else cracks the encryption... they block access to something, we load a vpn and access it anyway...

What is the realistic impact of this, assuming it ever actually gets implemented. (which is seriously doubt...)

Imagine a busy 7 lane motorway going to one lane and a police checkpoint stopping every vehicle and you will have a resonable picture