Most Asian nations realising Internet cannot be tamed

  It's not just dictators. Governments around the world, many of them popularly elected, have tried for years to control the Internet and social media, dismayed by their potential to incite violence, spread mischief and distribute pornography and dissent.

But in Asia, home to everything from free-wheeling democracies to totalitarian regimes and others in between, many governments are increasingly realising that controlling online content, including dissent, just will not work.

Even China, which strongly regulates the Internet and is grappling with how to deal with the extremely popular microblogs read by hundreds of millions of its people, is highly unlikely to block them completely.

"Governments are committing quite a bit of resources and time to block websites and I think it's a panic reaction," says Phil Robertson, Bangkok-based deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

"They have some temporary, immediate discouraging effect but over the longer term, they won't be effective because people will still find a way to get the news they want to hear.

"Once people have been exposed to the Internet and see the power of getting information free to your computer, it's a very addictive feeling of empowerment."

That snowballing of sentiment has played out this year in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, where governments have been overthrown by movements bolstered by the Internet. The United States tried to block dissemination of the WikiLeaks cables and British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened to temporarily censor social networking sites after riots last month.

Asia is also learning first-hand about the ubiquitous power of the wired world.

In India, authorities were taken aback last month when an anti-corruption campaign multiplied on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and drew tens of thousands of people to protest sites.

But there were no signs the government tried in any way to crack down on the online crusade, even if it could have.

"At the rate in which it gained momentum, I don't think the government actually had the time to ban the movement," said Vijay Mukhi, a cyber-security expert.

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'Hacktivists' make noise on US govt websites

A breed of cyber pranksters known as "hacktivists" appears to be on a campaign to embarrass the US government, but such types of attack are unlikely to breach the computer firewalls that protect important official secrets, independent analysts say.

A loosely organised group of hackers called Lulz Security, little known outside of cybersecurity circles, has claimed attacks against the public websites of the CIA and US Senate over the past week. Hackers mounted a second, similar assault against the Senate website on Wednesday, possibly the work of copycats.

US officials say government computer systems and websites, including those operated by the Pentagon, are subjected to thousands of attempted hackings each month but that safeguards usually keep would-be intruders away from sensitive data.

The Lulz style of attack, known as a denial of service meant to disable the target's website, is often undertaken by activists as young as teenagers and pose little danger aside from embarrassment and website clean-up costs that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's hacktivism -- activism through hacking. Campaigns of this kind have been done in the past for two reasons: outrage and self-promotion. This one is some combination of those," said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a think tank devoted to cyber issues.

"There's a lot of noise but no real downside, except that if people don't think the CIA can protect its own website, it colors their thinking about what it can do in other arenas -- maybe unfairly, but it doesn't really matter."

Denial of service attacks are the most basic form of cyber intervention, in which hackers jam a website by flooding it with traffic. The attacks often involve software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet.

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IMF latest target in string of cyber attacks

The International Monetary Fund says it was targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack earlier this year.

 IMF officials say the attack was a very major breach of its systems.
Cyber security officials say the hack was designed to install software to create a digital insider presence.

The headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC.

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The IMF says its operations are fully functional. The agency holds sensitive economic data about many countries.
The attack took place over several months.

IMF staff were told of the intrusion on Wednesday by e-mail.

 the incident is the latest in a string of high profile cyber security breaches.

In April, the Sony Playstation network was shut down after hackers stole the personal data of about 100 million accounts.
US defence firm Lockheed Martin said in May that it had come under a significant cyber-attack.

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