The impending move to a single gateway Internet access system in Thailand isn't going as smoothly as the local government may have hoped, with things taking a dramatic turn when Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks on the country's main telecom company and even managed to steal sensitive information.
At the start of the month, we reported on an out-of-the-ordinary DDoS attack that hit several Thai government websites. Apparently, following mass calls to action on social media, the people of Thailand all loaded and pressed F5 (refresh) on the websites of the Thai government (thaigov.go.th) and of the country’s Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) (mict.go.th).
Surprisingly, this hand-cranked DDoS attack managed to bring down those websites, even if for only a day.
The reason the people of Thailand went to such efforts was the country's plans to funnel all Internet connections using one single gateway server, which would be under the government's control.
Thai people are fearing Chinese-level Internet censorship plans
This meant that the Government would not only be the one that controlled when and how the country would be connected to the Internet, but would also have the power to sniff Internet traffic and impose hardline censorship rules. Thailand's plans for Internet access are almost identical to the ones China is using, with the Thai press calling this plan "The Great Firewall of Thailand" after its Chinese counterpart.
According to reports coming from Twitter (#OpSingleGateway), Anonymous Asia has now entered the playing fields and launched several DDoS attacks on the website of CAT Telecom, the state-owned Thai Internet Service Provider.
During the attack, Anonymous' crew also managed to steal sensitive government details regarding the "single gateway" Internet access plan. Anonymous has put a statement regarding its findings on Pastebin, but we’ve also added it at the end of this article.
Following the intrusion, the Thay Army said it would create a cyber warfare unit to deal with future threats.
