The personal Twitter account of Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Sunday was attacked by an unknown hacker, as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister pressed for an immediate probe on the matter.
The premier’s @PouYingluck account on the popular microblogging social network was targeted by an unknown person Sunday morning who denigrated, in eight separate posts (or tweets), the Pheu Thai government policies and administration.
“This country is a business. We are doing for our associates, not the Thai people. We are doing for those who support us, not those thinking differently from us.”
The last, posted at 10:45 a.m., said: “Even one’s own Twitter cannot be protected. How can the country be protected? Think about this.”
In the last post, the hacker also questioned the premier’s capacity to protect the country as she failed to even protect her Twitter account.
Pheu Thai party spokesman Prompong Nopparit on Sunday denounced the move as inappropriate, violating the premier’s privacy rights and the computer law.
Mr Prompong urged the ICT ministry to probe the case and bring the culprit to the prosecution as the matter was damaging to the premier’s image.
ICT minister Capt. Anudit Nakhontap said he has already assigned the Technology Crime Suppression Division to identify the hacker.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap said an investigation found the hacker used a prepaid phone card and an iPhone to access the accounts.
“Now we are tracking the culprit. We can not yet identify him/her but have some clues,”
stated the minister, adding the premier’s account can still not be retrieved, while noting the attacker is knowledgeable on how to register a Twitter account.
The Yingluck government came into power since August 10, less than two months but the government had to face with many problems ranging from widespread and long-standing floods to difficulty of implementing its promised campaign policies.
via PM’s twitter account targeted by unknown hacker.
Of Thailand’s 21m Internet users, 17.6m connect to the web through their mobiles, but connection and speed is usually poor. Thailand’s mobile-phone companies are offering limited 3G services using upgraded 2G networks they operate under concessions from state companies CAT and TOT Pcl. The state firms have used legal challenges to impede the liberalization of the industry before a change in 2013 that will see revenue from concession holders flow to the government instead.
