A few posts back I wrote about all the craziness that is going with the Net and Thailand. Now this article - which should be at the DailyXpress but I can’t find it - should really freak you out.
No room for cyber crime
Pasara Putthamat
Special to Daily Xpress
A new Internet security system called Security Revolution Analysis Network means cyber criminals will no longer remain anonymous.
Some think they can get away with crime on the Net – posting porn or defaming people on web boards.
Now, the network, known as Sran, can identify easily who is doing what in cyberspace, says Narat Saraman, the chief executive at Global Technology Integrated. “Everything done on the Internet will be recorded. We can identify exactly who, what, where, when and how people are doing things,” Narat says.
Editor’s note: So do we really think a system this sophisticated will only be used for fighting crime? With statements like everything will be recorded I really wonder what this is all about.
Sran was developed five years ago for information-technology network-threat surveillance. Its main work is to record and analyse data traffic. It detects intrusions and prevents internal and external threats.
The Computer Crime Act has been in effect since June last year. Sran has been found to be an excellent cyber-crime detective.
Computer crimes – phishing, server attacks, fraud, domain-name theft – are hard to counter because identifying lawbreakers is difficult.
But the police have been able to make headway with Sran.
“In the past we spent weeks tracking computer crime. But after we fitted Sran, we can identify suspects in just five minutes,” says Colonel Siripong Timula, superintendent of the hi-tech crime centre.
Editor’s note: 5 minutes eh? Sure. What is it they are fighting and what big computer crime cases are we talking about? All seems just a little too suspect in my book.
The police can track suspected cyber criminals anywhere – even Internet cafes.
Editor’s note: This should give anyone further pause in ever using an internet cafe in Thailand. Laptops are cheap folks. Pack your own.
Catching cyber criminals is easier if everyone cooperates. At present just the police and the Information and Communication Technology Ministry are working together.
Editor’s note: So just these guys right? No one using it for blatant censorship? No one in the government using it for hushing dissenters? Wouldn’t ever be used for anything but pure crime fighting I am sure of it.
“If companies or organisations fit a security system, it will be easier to find violators. And, if there is a complaint against your organisation – employees or hackers – and we find you haven’t installed any security systems, you’ll be fined up to Bt500,000,” says Siripong.
Editor’s note: Okay. This one totally lost me. I am required to install this security system or I will pay a fine? Anyone able to shed any clarity on this one?
Sran costs Bt100,000 for an organisation with 30 computers. It cost three times as much if you are using imported hardware and software.
Editor’s note: No offense tech boys. But a computer is a computer. What is the difference if it is imported or not? Totally lost now folks.
Internet cafes are required to register customers and install closed-circuit cameras.
Editor’s note: Oh really? So I have a bar with 3 computers. No cameras and no security system. So what now? This whole cyber crime stuff is shit. It will put Thailand already further behind and continue to cement its position as the big country in SE Asia with a pathetic amount of internet usage, very little outsourcing and zero growth in the overall IT market. Nice one folks.
Now for some sense. This article I believe. We all know curly head boy with the mega smile loves the ladyboys.
Christ, what a creative concept! What a classic scam! Make up a tale about magical, crime-fighting, see-all-know-all security software, then fine people for not having it installed. Naturally, just to make the con believable, you announce that you will fine ‘foreign computers’ three times what the local pay.
Thais may be dumb; Thais may be lazy; Thias may be corrupt; but when it comes to ridiculous schemes to hit up foreigners for money, Thai cops are world beaters……
View all comments by Old Asia Hand
It is stunning. Even when I see that little tuk tuk driver trying to get me in for 20 baht everyday for some tour or another - I never think they are dumb. They know exactly what they are doing.
Stuff like this is just on a much bigger level. Stunning.
View all comments by smitty
Ok so this is one huge data warehouse of indexes, keywords, IP addresses, and cross references. Data mining in something this large (think Google) would have to be horrendous. I smell a fish, …simply don’t think they can effectively use something like that: they may have it but it is only as good as their queries.
Easiest thing I can think of, if you’re thinking of posting political stuff, use pseudonyms to name whoever you are talking about. Just call Mr.T., Mr.Something-else. Etc.
Posting porn (is that a crime?), use a server located outside of Thailand. You could even use this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1562916/Pacific-island-cashes-in-on-website-domain.html
Sure they have to beat the drum to get people nervous. But are they really that 100% omniscient? I think not.
View all comments by Julian
And if you’re really into political stuff, grab a phone with gprs for 2k THB, some DTAC-happy card, call service and buy the 100 hours of net for 350THB, and you’re in
Sure they ask for your name, but i’m John Lennon in their file…
View all comments by Louk
I wonder how many of there copies of Windows are licensed?
View all comments by Young Royal
julian - agreed but let’s be honest. Whatever they are going to do they will fuck up. So the fact they are even trying is bad enough since they won’t do it right, won’t get enough horsepower and surely will mess up the internet in the process.
louk - not bad the the overall bandwidth kind of sucks. okay for email and surfing but not much else.
yr - who is stupid enough to use widows?
View all comments by smitty
YP: my guess would be 3 ^^’
Smitty: sure, the BW sucks big time, ~100kb, but if it’s to talk sometimes about things That Shall Not Be Named, it’s fine
And for everything else, your standard dsl-whatever line. the cost is small enough to be used in parallel to your usual system.
If i guess right, the worst that could happens is that they cancel this card, and you just have to buy a new one
View all comments by Louk
What a load of nonsense! So what are they going to do if someone uses a foreign anonymity service like Tor or Jap? Thailand has no jurisdiction over their logs. What if they use encryption like PGP or use VPN’s, IPSec etc or BOTnets?
Granted they got the guy (Stephan Alexander) that was blackmailing Tesco Lotus via an Internet Cafe on Sukhumvit soi 4) but he obviously was a rookie who thought that using an Internet Cafe would make him anonymous (he got caught doing the same thing in Pattaya this year).
Thailand’s ADSL services aren’t even “real” ADSL, yet now Thailand is the “go-to-guy” for cyber crime??? I am sure China will be calling them shortly
I can’t wait for some hacker to take offense and trash their web-site :-p
View all comments by beamer
louk - I hear ya
beamer - so right on.It is such a joke.One wonders when some super hacker might start to torment these guys. Would love to see that.
View all comments by smitty
It’s just been pointed out to me (by BangkokDan) that if you enter ‘Bangkok’ into a youtube search you get a blank screen - it’s started already…. (mind you, if you enter ‘Soi Cowboy’ you still get plenty of responses)
View all comments by doctorbond
Thought you might like to see this from lady from FHM Thailand, just to distract you for a while?
http://ionmx.com:80/apps/display.aspx?t=a88-21d-21d-2780-35c4ba&h=0b100b9572c0fddc90396ab951e54def
View all comments by AUK
Lolita’s fell foul of the new clampdown last year because they were registered with a Thai ISP. Fortunately for them their domain registration expired several months later so they were able to re-register it outside Thailand and got it back up and running.
View all comments by beamer
Smitty…. Wrong footballer. ‘Ronaldo’, not Ronaldhino was the footballer caught with the trannies.
View all comments by Day Walker
I use Windows. Call me Mister T frow now on. Don’t want trouble.
View all comments by Suk Psycho
I know it would be expensive but if you absolutely must have data security or access to websites and data that are not allowed in Thailand then renting a dedicated server in a friendly country and then remote desktopping to it is probably the easiest way to go.
First off, you can encrypt the sessions so the government can only see the traffic and not what’s in it (though some might argue that alone would set off some red flags).
Second, since you’re simply going to a standard server with no offensive content it’s unlikely to be deemed suspicious unlike routing everything through a proxy server. Anybody who goes to the trouble of setting up a system like this would surely be able to do the homework required to figure out where all the major proxy services are. The problem with other proxy’s like Tor is that the more you mask your activity the slower things get.
Lastly, all of the cache, history, and other data would be on the remote machine. So if the boys in brown bust down your door and want to search your computer they’ll find no tell tale signs of what you’ve been up to.
I did something similar when I first moved overseas. I put an old desktop computer I had over at my dad’s place and used DynDNS to assign it a domain name as my dad had cable DSL and the IP address would change fairly often. I originally did it because I was afraid some of my online banking and other sites might block me coming from overseas and this way I could just remote into the computer at my dad’s place and make it seem like I was back in the US.
The thing I love about crap like this big brother app is that for anyone with half a brain it’s simple to completely bypass it. Yet, what it will likely do is degrade the internet experience for millions of people while being only marginally successful in stopping cyber-crime.
View all comments by Billy Bangkok
Don’t know about Big Brother comes to Thailand looks like Thailand has come to Big Brother.
http://www.channel4.com/bigbrother/housemates/profile.jsp?housemateId=235
….. or is that not what you meant?
Another tedious summer of irrelevant crap ahead! You are sooooo lucky to be in LOS
View all comments by Spyker
Hey, why not hook up a webcam in the Big Mango Bar.
That way we could party right along with ya.
View all comments by arttv
billy - personally I am not that paranoid but yes - something like that pretty easy to do. I think my point in this was that in wanting to do any of this, my guess is the thais are fucking up the general workings of the internet.
artv - pretty simple answer to that. Wives, girlfriends and bosses would have access to the same images.
View all comments by smitty
Ok here is a Thai’s take on that: http://asiansweetheart.blogspot.com/2008/06/internet-spying.html
Sure, I read her article and pondered it for a while, but then for some reason I found myself navigating to this, much more interesting link, IMO: http://asiansweetheart.blogspot.com/2008/05/too-short.html
View all comments by Julian
DW i have a new found respect for ronaldo
The chubby, po-faced goofy cunt is my new hero
View all comments by Young Penfold
at least as a Thai she tells it like it is:
Totally agree.
View all comments by smitty
@Smitty: Of course they’re going to fuck it up. I assumed that was a given.
View all comments by Billy Bangkok
Still looking at that short skirt.
View all comments by Young Royal
Billy Bangkok:
You should look into setting up a remote server using Amazon EC2.
.10 USD an hour for a basic server.
View all comments by yayster
Just taking note of the author’s name on the article quoted by smitty in the blog:
Pasara Putthamat
Sorry, but it puts me in mind of Tweety and Sylvester
View all comments by werewolf