Burma
Newspaper Web sites hackedPosted Oct 25 2008
The Web sites of Mizzima News were hacked into Oct. 1, Mizzima’s webmaster reports. Unidentified hackers took advantage of poor encryption to delete files and temporarily disable several of the agency’s sites.
The hacker’s IP address was traced to a U.S. server, but Mizzima couldn’t confirm whether Myanmar’s ruling military junta was behind the breach.
“It is hard to tell who is behind the attack, but someone who has a special interest could be the culprit or culprits,” Managing Editor Sein Win told Mizzima.
The New Delhi-based Mizzima News, an independent Myanmar media group that offers news in English and Burmese on several linked Web sites, has been effectively banned by Myanmar’s ruling military junta. However, citizens have found ways to bypass government controls and access the sites.
This is just the most recent in a string of attacks on exiled Myanmar news agencies, IFEX reports. Mizzima was previously hacked July 27 and Sept. 17 when the systems of Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma, Chiang Mai-based The Irrawaddy and Bangkok-based New Era Journal were jammed by a flood of automated requests for data in what is known as a distributed denial of service attack.