The Court of Justice (CoJ) has insisted that the cyber attacks taking Thai court websites offline Wednesday would not force the court to change the guilty verdict in the Koh Tao murders case.
The attackers also got away with cyber-theft of extensive legal records, including employee lists, according to claims by the attackers and records they posted to the internet.
"Our mission was not only defacing all Supreme Court (sic) of Thailand sites and all province courts... [but also] to take down their Justice Net and get their information," a Twitter post claimed.
Files posted by Anonymous and examined by the Bangkok Post appear to be from the court system, as the Anonymous posters claim.
An SQL database file of 1.1 gigabytes contains thousands of names, ID card numbers, photos, email addresses, personal phone numbers and more — all in clear text.
Hundreds of records identified as lists of court employees include the actual log-in and passwords each employee uses to access the Court of Justice's intranet system known as MIS.
Also included are records of thousands of "court users" — people who have used or passed through the justice system, complete with ID details.
The court contacted the Thailand Computer Emergency Response Team (ThaiCERT) which found about 10 IP addresses linked to the attack. A trivia fact from the massive database: 6,726 computers linked to the court system still use Windows XP
The court will pursue legal action given that this violates the Computer Crime Act, CoJ spokesman Suebpong Sripongkul said.
"The CoJ wishes to state that the attack will not result in any change in the ruling on the Koh Tao case as the court issued a ruling based on the law," he said, adding that the two convicted men from Myanmar still have the option to file an appeal against the verdict.
His statement came after self-styled "hackers" claiming to be associated with the Anonymous collective knocked nearly 300 Thai court and government websites offline in retaliation for the death sentences.
A Facebook post at a page believed to be linked to Anonymous claimed responsibility for the attacks. The page is believed to be associated with the same Myanmar group that defaced Royal Thai Police websites on Jan 5. It said the attacks had shut down "all Thai Court of Justice websites in protest over the #KohTao murder verdict".
"Anonymous is supporting the campaign to ask tourists to boycott Thailand 'until such time changes are made with the way Thai police handle investigations involving foreign tourists'," the post read.
The post included the graphic bearing the name "Blink Hackers Group" which also attacked Thai police websites earlier this month.
Anonymous celebrated on Twitter.
The group also listed the 297 websites attacked in a Pastebin post. Checks of some of the sites on the list resulted in total failure to connect to any as of Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said he had ordered the police's legal and foreign affairs units to examine the denunciation of the court and police by Laura Witheridge, the sister of the Koh Tao rape and murder victim Hannah Witheridge, to determine whether she had broken the law.
Whether police pursue any legal action against her will depend on the probe's results, Pol Gen Chakthip said.
