Ong said that such tools are useful in organizing virtual protests for two reasons. "Now, because of the Internet, especially through social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook, there is a relatively low cost and efficient way of reaching out to a larger number of people to protest against governments," he said. In an e-mail interview, Ong noted that previously, protests against the government of the day would occur through voting against the candidates of the party in power or in more direct forms through street protests or more violent demonstrations. Malaysia is one of the few countries in world that has promised not to censor the Internet and has legislations-the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and the BOG-which were enacted specifically to guarantee against censorship.īesides these specific cyberattacks on government portals, Malaysians have also been increasingly more vocal regarding their displeasure at the government's actions and policies through social media channels.Īccording to Ong Kian Ming, political scientist and lecturer at the UCSI University's faculty of Economics and Policy Science, Malaysians' feelings of frustration and political beliefs against the powers that be have always been present in society. "But now, it's just doing that, and this may have caused some to retaliate." The government, he added, had promised not to censor the Internet in its Bill of Guarantees (BOG). "The government says it is filtering these Web sites to curb piracy but in reality, filtering is just another way of practising censorship after all it's just semantics," he pointed out. It is also trying to do that now, which doesn't sit well with netizens, and this may have spurred the attacks."ĭhillon Kannabhiran, founder and CEO of Hack in The Box, concurred, noting that the Internet is probably the last bastion of freedom Malaysians can experience. "The government today controls so much of people's lives and the Internet is probably the only area they haven't controlled. "You could say this is the straw that has broken the camel's back," the expert said. On its part, the government defended its actions, noting such moves were necessary to curb the rampant piracy and copyright violations that it said was happening through such sites.Ī security expert ZDNet Asia spoke with, who declined to be named, noted that the recent attacks on the government's Web infrastructure are an indication that some Malaysians have reached the breaking point insofar as how the government has chosen to regulate the Internet. Most of the sites were file sharing in nature, including the well-known The Pirate Bay portal. The government, through industry regulator the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), last week issued a directive to all Internet service providers (ISPs) asking them to block access of 10 specific Web sites. Newswire Reuters reported Thursday that online activist group Anonymous brought down more than 40 Web sites belonging to the Malaysian government, in what appeared to be a retaliation move against censorship. Netizen frustration over government intervention via censorship, which occurs from time to time, and the ease at which they can vent their grievances through social media channels, may have exacerbated the situation, say industry watchers. PETALING JAYA-The recent bout of cyberattacks on the Malaysian government is likely driven by several factors, not all of which are technology-related.