By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Shortly before the anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and last year’s Buddhist-monk-led Saffron Revolution, two leading dissident websites in Myanmar have been shut down by a sophisticated cyber attack. The websites, run by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and the Irrawaddy news magazine, are operated by exiles outside Myanmar.  These websites are one of the few remaining sources of reliable news for people in Myanmar, however both were disabled on Wednesday.

Irrawaddy said Thai web host I-NET had confirmed on Wednesday its site had been under “distributed denial-of-service” assault.  Aung Zaw, editor-in-chief of the Irrawaddy online magazine, says his staff is gathering evidence and believes it will be able to identify the attackers.  He believes that the junta is behind the attack, just as it was behind the shutdown of Internet access in Burma during last year’s uprising.  Myanmar’s military junta has launched a series of crippling cyberspace attacks on dissident websites on the first anniversary of major protest marches by Buddhist monks, the Irrawaddy websites said on Friday.

DVB’s Thailand bureau chief, Toe Zaw Latt, said the agency’s website was only a small part of its reporting operations, and two major sources of news inside Myanmar, its radio and satellite television stations, both remained up and running.  The Internet inside Myanmar had also been running slower than its normal snail’s pace this week and Internet cafes had come under unusually tight surveillance, the Irrawaddy said.  Security was also tight on the streets of Yangon, with some vehicle checkpoints, one diplomat said.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Asia – Cyber-Attacks on Burmese Web Sites – 19 September 2008

Reuters – Myanmar junta takes out critical websites – dissidents – 19 September 2008

Wall Street Journal – The Generals Go Cyber? – 19 September 2008