As a cyber war erupted after authorities shut down the internet for a fourth straight night, hackers attacked military-run government websites in Myanmar on Thursday.
Multiple government websites including the Central Bank, Myanmar Military’s propaganda page, state-run broadcaster MRTV, the Port Authority, the Food and Drug Administration were disrupted by a group called Myanmar Hackers.
The move comes a day after thousands of people gathered across the country to protest a military coup that toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi from power earlier this month.
“We are fighting for justice in Myanmar,” the hacking group said on its page on Facebook.
“It is like mass protesting of people in front of government websites.”
Cybersecurity expert Matt Warren of the RMIT University of Australia said it was likely that the hacking’s aim was to generate publicity.
He told AFP, “The sorts of attacks they would be undertaking are denial of service attacks or defacing websites which is called hacktivism,”
“The impact will be potentially limited but what they are doing is raising awareness.”
According to NetBlocks, a British-based group that monitors internet outages around the globe, another internet shutdown began in Myanmar at about 1:00 am on Thursday (1830 GMT Wednesday).
Internet connectivity had fallen to just 21% of ordinary levels, it said.
