Thai gov’t websites crash, ‘symbolic act’ by censorship critics

The new single gateway plan added to the citizens’ fears that their freedom of speech could be curtailed, the Straits Times reported.

“At the moment the feasibility studies have yet to reach any conclusion”.

Besides the information and communication technology ministry website, other targeted sites included those of CAT Telecom, the defence permanent secretary’s office, the Royal Thai Armed Forces headquarters, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Internal Security Operations Command and Government House.

After the impromptu DDoS attack, Minister for Information Uttama Savanayana showed the first signs of doubt when he said that the single gateway decision was kept secret because it was not final, and it did not want to alarm the population.

Draconian Thai cyber legislation has existed since 2007 and is often used to police websites and stamp out criticism of the country’s revered monarchy, which is protected by strict lese-majeste laws being strongly enforced by the junta.

Last week, Thai media carried reports about government plans to regulate user access to the Internet by creating a single gateway that could be controlled by the authorities.

Angry net users answered calls on social media to go on websites for government agencies and political parties to continuously click “refresh”, with organisers directing participants on Facebook to move from one site to another.

Prayuth had asked government agencies to “find measures to take appropriate care and raise the youth of the nation to learn, use and access technology in the most beneficial way”, he said.

However, the prime minister said cybersecurity was crucial to national security and implementation of the “digital economy”, in which business and financial data must be secured, and the usage of a single Internet gateway was one of the tools to ensure cybersecurity.

Among the affected websites were those of the ICT Ministry, which was hit by more than 100,000 users, even though the daily average was only about 6,000.

A minister stopped short of describing the incident as a cyberattack but said that it was triggered by those opposed to the proposal, dubbed by a few online as the “Great Firewall of Thailand” – a play on China’s draconian Internet censorship program.

However, Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the public should not be misled and that the single-gateway plan was still under study.