Websites of all 20 Thai ministries hacked by online gambling platforms
The websites of state agencies under all 20 Thai ministries have been attacked by hackers working for online gambling platforms, Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn said on Friday.
He said the hackers managed to plant malicious script on webpages of the government agencies that linked to online gambling websites.
More than 30 million URLs of compromised state-agency websites were found to have been corrupted.
The DES minister said the scripts caused state agency webpages hijacked by online gambling websites to appear among the top Google search results. The scripts contain keywords about online gambling and links to gaming platforms.
Chaiwut said Thai state agencies have suffered over 500 cyberattacks in the past year, two-thirds of them involving website hacking.
The biggest targets were academic organisations, followed by public health agencies and local administrative organisations.
However, the National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) detected no serious damage from the cyberattacks, Chaiwut said. It also advised the agencies to adopt anti-hacking, which resulted in a decline in new cases, he added.
The minister also warned the public about cybercriminals conning people with fake websites and false social media accounts and e-mail addresses.
These criminals also lure victims to install malicious apps on their phones that allow them to remotely control the devices and steal money via mobile banking apps. The criminals often pose as officials of state agencies or private companies.
Chaiwut said the NCSA has taken down many websites and accounts used by cybercriminals.
He said anyone with information about cybercrime could contact the ministry via the 1212 hotline, website [email protected], or https://facebook.com/DESMonitor.
