By David Hamilton, theWHIR.com
September 19, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The ruling Burmese junta has launched a series of online attacks against websites critical of the country`s military government including Irrawaddy (theirrawaddy.blogspot.com), a Burmese news outlet based in Thailand.
Irrawaddy migrated its writing to Google`s Blogger when irrawaddy.org was taken offline due to a cyber attack on Wednesday, which was the first anniversary of Burma’s anti-government protests known as the “Saffron Revolution” that were swiftly stopped using imprisonment and violence.
Following Russian hacks of Georgian and Lituanian targets, this is the latest politically-motivated cyber attack. However, the attack by the Burmese government is against its own citizens.
Irrawaddy reported that Thai web host I-NET said its site been hit by a denial-of-service attack, overwhelming the site with traffic and forcing it offline.
New Era Journal and the Democratic Voice of Burma (dvb.no) were also taken offline.
“Similar to using force against the peaceful, metta suttra-chanting monks, the junta has no better idea than to hack the free media,” read a comment on Irrawaddy`s website by a user known by the alias “Swan.”
“The generals may think they’ve scored a hit with this virus attack, but in the long run, this hacking shows their desperate attempt to gag the mouths of people even outside Burma, and will never succeed.”
