Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/09/thai_pm_site_defaced/

Thai PM's site defaced with smutty abuse

Shinawatra accused of being worst PM EVER!

By Phil Muncaster

Posted in Legal, 9th May 2013 03:46 GMT

The Thai Prime Minister’s Office web site is out of action after hackers yesterday defaced the home page with insulting slogans, although the group implicated in the attack says it was framed.

Glamorous Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, has been a controversial figure in Thailand since she swept to power in 2011.

The site defacement included a picture of her laughing alongside the words “I’m a slutty moron”, and later, "I know that I am the worst Prime Minister ever in Thailand history!!!", according to The Hacker News.

Responsibility for the hack was claimed by local duo Unlimited Hack Team, however a message on their Facebook page denies all responsibility and claims that rival hackers may be trying to unfairly blame them for the attack.

Google Translate has done its worst to garble the meaning but The Bangkok Post translated the rest as follows:

Every time Unlimited Hack Team hacked a website we'll come out to claim responsibility. People should wait for police to find the perpetrators and punish them.

The paper also quotes Suranand Vejjajiva, the secretary-general to the PM's Office, as saying that the culprits will be charged under the country’s controversial Computer Crime Act.

“Hacking a website is easy... but don't forget that checking who did it is not hard either,” he added.

Human rights activists are increasingly concerned that the 2007 law is being misused under the Shinawatra regime to stifle freedom of speech.

The act penalises any “false computer data” which could cause damage to a third party or national security. However, given Thailand’s strict and somewhat anachronistic lèse majesté law, defaming the monarchy could be viewed as damaging national security.

In a highly celebrated case around a year ago, Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn was given an eight month suspended sentence after a defamatory user-generated comment was left on her site for 20 days.

Most recently labour rights activist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was sentenced to a whopping 11 years in jail in January 2013, after campaigning against lèse majesté and penning articles critical of the monarchy.

NGO Freedom House’s latest Freedom of the Press index rates the country as “Not Free”, putting it in the same boat as repressive regimes such as Ethiopia, China and Iran. ®