Towards the end of 2016, Anonymous formed a campaign targeting Thai government. The Thai government thought it’d be a good idea to offer up a bill regarding the internet (of all things). In this bill, they proposed that the entire country’s internet traffic be routed through one single gateway.
Thus . . . #OpSingleGateway was born. Shortly after the campaign started gaining virtual momentum, members of the hacktivist group organized a “hand-cranked DDoS attack” against thaigov.go.th (Thai government) and mict.go.th (Ministry of Information/Communications/and Technology).
Bleeping Computer explained the process in their blog,
“The hacktivism group used social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and urged Thai citizens to access these two websites and repeatedly refresh the page, resulting in a manual DDoS attack that overwhelmed the two websites.”
The outcome: complete surrender. The Thai government dropped the bill and all went back to hunky dory normal . . . Until the beginning of 2017, when Thai government made alterations to their standing Computer Crime Act.
A leaked report by the Thai Netizen Network gave more information:
“Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, which proposes an amendment to Article 20 of the Computer Crime Act. The amendment will provide the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) with the authority to access, block or delete encrypted content on websites. The Minister may issue a regulation for Internet Service Providers to delete or restrain the dissemination of computer data, in accordance with evolving technology.”
Despite a campaign not unlike #OpSingleGateway and several cyber-attacks following the campaign, the Thai Government still passed the amendment(s). However, Anonymous and other hacktivist groups still try to fight back in the only way they know how: hacking, hacking, and more hacking.
Earlier this week, Anonymous released a statement on one of their social media pages,
“We can’t wait! Our Weapons is ready for this Cyber Attack on Thai Gov’t ! #ExpectUs #OpAnonymousGreece #AnonymousThailand #OpSingleGateway”
Their effort is pure dedication. On the other hand, their effort might also be futile in the end. Who knows?