Hackers attacked military-run government websites in Myanmar Thursday as a cyber war erupted after authorities shut down the internet for a fourth straight night.
A group called Myanmar Hackers disrupted multiple government websites including the Central Bank, Myanmar Military’s propaganda page, state-run broadcaster MRTV, the Port Authority, Food and Drug Administration.
The move comes a day after thousands of people rallied across the country to protest against a military coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government from power earlier this month.
“We are fighting for justice in Myanmar,” the hacking group said on its Facebook page.
“It is like mass protesting of people in front of government websites.”
Cybersecurity expert Matt Warren from Australia’s RMIT University said it was likely the aim of the hacking was to generate publicity.
“The sorts of attacks they would be undertaking are denial of service attacks or defacing websites which is called hacktivism,” he told AFP.
“The impact will be potentially limited but what they are doing is raising awareness.”
Another internet shutdown began in Myanmar at about 1:00 am on Thursday (1830 GMT Wednesday), according to NetBlocks, a Britain-based group that monitors internet outages around the world.
It said internet connectivity had dropped to just 21 percent of ordinary levels.
Related: Digital Warfare: Myanmar’s Cyber Crackdown Explained
Related: Chinese APT Uses DLL Side-Loading in Attacks on Myanmar

More from AFP
- Dutch, European Hospitals ‘Hit by Pro-Russian Hackers’
- Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin
- Meta Slapped With 5.5 Million Euro Fine for EU Data Breach
- International Arrests Over ‘Criminal’ Crypto Exchange
- France Regulator Raps Apple Over App Store Ads
- More Political Storms for TikTok After US Government Ban
- Meta Hit With 390 Million Euro Fine Over EU Data Breaches
- Facebook Agrees to Pay $725 Million to Settle Privacy Suit
Latest News
- Malicious NPM, PyPI Packages Stealing User Information
- VMware Confirms Exploit Code Released for Critical vRealize Logging Vulnerabilities
- 98% of Firms Have a Supply Chain Relationship That Has Been Breached: Analysis
- Dutch, European Hospitals ‘Hit by Pro-Russian Hackers’
- Gem Security Gets $11 Million Seed Investment for Cloud Incident Response Platform
- Ransomware Leads to Nantucket Public Schools Shutdown
- Stop, Collaborate and Listen: Disrupting Cybercrime Networks Requires Private-Public Cooperation and Information Sharing
- Boxx Insurance Raises $14.4 Million in Series B Funding
