Attacks on Rohingyas: Myanmar govt websites hacked again

Several Myanmar government and private websites were again attacked by alleged Turkish hackers to protest the raging conflict in Rakhine, which displaced thousands of Rohingyas, a government official said Wednesday.

The attacks began on August 31 and have been continuing but so far these have not done much damage or interruption to the websites in the country, according to U Ye Naing Moe, director of Information Technology and Cyber Security Department.

“There wasn’t any massive damage done for the attacked websites,” he said.

Among the government websites that were defaced were those related to forestry and natural resources, U Ye Naing Moe said.

The attacks basically consisted of website defacement, and people would not be able to access the attacked website. But within a few hours after the hacking, government IT experts were able to regain control of the websites and restore their operations. 

“The five departments’ websites that were hacked were hosted by a single server,” said U Ye Naing Moe.

“We recovered in time. We have also given instruction to other relevant ministries what they should do in case their websites are attacked,” he said.

He added that emergency schemes are being drawn up quickly and his office will cooperate with young professionals and amateur local IT experts to help protect each other if an attack occurs.

A group of local underground hackers calling themselves Union of Underground Myanmar Hackers have took it upon themselves to retaliate and began attacking several Turkish government and private websites.

The UGMH carried out counter attacks on some Turkish government websites and more than 700 Turkish websites.

On September 4, the websites of the Central Bank of Myanmar, Ministry of Culture and Maubin University were attacked, along with a job-search website.

Ayyildiz, the name of the alleged Turkish hackers, announced on social media that they have stolen the information of about 80,000 people who are seeking jobs in Myanmar.

But UGMH replied that “It’s a beta-stage site. So, some would just put in whatever they want or some information would be true. But there wouldn’t be a catastrophic effect even if they release it.”

UGMH also got data from Turkish websites and warned that the data would be leaked if the attack becomes more intense, said a UGMH member.

Source: The Myanmar Times