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Cyberattack Cripples Myanmar's Servers, Just in Time for Election

by Amar Toor on November 5, 2010 at 10:40 AM

election protest in myanmar
This Sunday, Myanmar will hold its first free elections in 20 years. Whether or not the rest of the world hears about them, however, remains to be seen.

Last week, a major cyberattack struck the troubled Southeast Asian country, crippling Internet services just in time for the election. IT security firm Arbor Networks says the country's servers seem to have fallen prey to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that was "several hundred times" bigger than would be necessary to take down Myanmar's frail network. At this point, service providers say the disruption may have originated outside of Burma, though they have yet to identify a source. "Our technicians have been trying to prevent cyberattacks from other countries," a technician from Yatanarpon Teleport Co. told AFP. "We still do not know whether access will be good on the election day."

Some, however, suspect that Myanmar's military regime may have intentionally tinkered with the country's servers, in an attempt to block information from flowing beyond its borders. The Burmese junta, after all, has never exactly warmed up to the idea of free elections. During the country's last elections in 1990, the majority of voters elected the National League for Democracy to power. The junta promptly ignored the results, and planted itself atop Myanmar's political pyramid.

This time around, the country has banned all journalists from entering the country to cover the election, leading many to believe that the country's Internet slowdown could simply be an extension of the government's media blackout. "Although they said the connection has been attacked, it's hard to believe, said Kyaw Kyaw, a 25-year-old college student. "I think they have been doing it intentionally for the election day to delay news reaching the international community."

Tags: burma, CyberAttack, ddos, election, junta, myanmar, politics, security, top

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