Thai immigration data leak

[Moses]

As per few sources at past weekend highly sensitive data including names, addresses and passport details of foreigners in southern Thailand breach occurred.

The scariest part of the story is that Thai immigration officials gave freelance programmer Akram Aleeming highly sensitive data, so he could build his "test" system. Thai immigration data shared online includes all southern provinces from Chumphon down to Yala and Narathiwat. Names, nationality, passport numbers, addresses and work details all published. http://www.adsum.in.th/index.php


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[Smiles]

What? What?? What???
Moses, I'm sorry, but you are slowly becoming almost incomprehensible ... this post as well as the post regarding "2's," and "@'s". (The only thing I got out of that particular reply was that 'moderation' would be forthcoming if such things appeared in posts ... which means to me such shenanigans should be mentioned in the Guidelines).
'
And those maps (in this thread). What??
I have no idea what you are talking about in either post ... perhaps I'm alone on this?

[rincondog]

It seems the Thai immigration bureau has a history of website hacking.
http://thehackpost.com/tunisian-attackers-hacked-the-thailand-official-immigration-website.html

[Moses]

It seems the Thai immigration bureau has a history of website hacking.
http://thehackpost.com/tunisian-attackers-hacked-the-thailand-official-immigration-website.html

No. It was not hacker - data base has been accidentally published online by freelancer, who made this program (with personal data of foreigners: passport numbers, address in Thailand. nationality and so on) for immigration bureau and forgot to protect his job with password for staff only. So it became visible to everyone visitor.


What? What?? What???
Moses, I'm sorry, but you are slowly becoming almost incomprehensible ... this post as well as the post regarding "2's," and "@'s". (The only thing I got out of that particular reply was that 'moderation' would be forthcoming if such things appeared in posts ... which means to me such shenanigans should be mentioned in the Guidelines).
'
And those maps (in this thread). What??
I have no idea what you are talking about in either post ... perhaps I'm alone on this?

Shortly: don't use letter "@" at your post if you want it be published immediately. If you will use @ - your post will be filtered (and hidden) by forum's robot then and will be "on hold" till time when admins or moderators will read and approve it for publication.

[cdnmatt]

Doesn't Thai immigration have their own software developers? They need to contract this work out?

[lego]

Shocking, eh? But seriously, it is.

[cdnmatt]

Doesn't Thai immigration have their own software developers? They need to contract this work out?

I should clarify... not a problem they contracted the project out, as nearly every government does that. But why would you award a contract like this to an individual freelancer? That's insane. No disrespect to myself, but that's as dumb as awarding me a contract to upgrade the Thai immigration system, then giving me full access to the system.

I'll take a wild guess and say it was a pre-meditated social engineering hack. So they didn't get hacked in the traditional, technical sense, but instead someone schmoozed their way into getting awarded the contract, in order to get access.

[Smiles]

I give up. Bye bye New Sawatdee.

[Yraen]

Smiles, you are being deliberately obtuse.

Moses does not 'have' English as his mother-tongue so let up a bit.

Being a Canadian-dialect speaker (as I am a user of Strine) I would expect a higher degree of tolerance for non-English speakers who are grappling with the complexities of one of the world's most difficult-to-learn languages. Difficult because it is often arse-about-face from most other languages on the planet and uses wayyy too many "decorative" words and phrases.

In juxtaposition, pasa thai and bahasa meleyu/indinesia are simple, direct, elegant languages.

[fountainhall]

Smiles, you are being deliberately obtuse
I have to agree! There was a thread not so long ago - the latest of many - about how (1) the number of posters has been falling off and (2) those from countries who do not have English as a first language rarely make posts. Most of us have known for years that Moses is not a native English speaker. Now we know that without his input, this forum might have died sooner rather than later. Besides he has a considerably better knowledge of this part of the world than many who do post and so his inputs are valuable. Disappearing in a huff merely because English fluency and construction may not be as you would wish is surely somewhat petty, I suggest. Were you so uptight about one particular native English poster whose posts often run for 5, 6 or more lines with hardly any punctuation?

[christianpfc]

I have no idea what you are talking about in either post ... perhaps I'm alone on this?
It seems so. I have no problem understanding Moses' posts.

Now we know immigration knows who is living where and all their details, but I always wondered: why don't they have a program that shows who is on overstay?

[christianpfc]

It's lonelywombat's (recent example the one referring to thread about hotels in Jomtien on gaythailand) and your posts that I often fail to understand.

Time for editing posts should be increased, I think 1 hour is fine.

[cdnmatt]

Now we know immigration knows who is living where and all their details, but I always wondered: why don't they have a program that shows who is on overstay?

Because people on overstay don't do 90 day address reporting.

[justaguy]

It's unacceptable what is happening here.

Not only did they not bother to make sure the website is NOT publicly accessible, hence disclosing sentive information from unsuspecting persons residing in Thailand, the "security" employed leaves much to be desired, considering people were able to access the admin pages of said website using password 1234567 !

I guess this contracter will not be working on this anymore, and whoever hired him is going to be nervous as well now.

Of course, the immmigration department isn't the only one or so it seems:

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1459230109

[bobsaigon2]

Further off-topic: I spent 20 years teaching English in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and thirty more years living amongst non-English speaking populations. Still haven't figured out how anyone learns another language. I only have a smattering of Arabic to show for ten years of contact with the speakers, slightly more than a smattering of Thai (Thai spouse, Thai bf's) but even less fluency in Vietnamese because I moved to Vietnam at 60 years of age, when my short term memory was starting to decline. Noam Chomsky posits an LAD (Language Acquisition Device),supposedly an innate characteristic of all human beings, but he was never patient enough to explain exactly how this works. What I am trying to say is that I have the greatest admiration of, even envy, for people who can communicate in a second or third language. Christianpfc expresses himself flawlessly in English, and given time, I would expect him to have the same success in Thai. Some others on the board, both native and non-native speakers of English, pose comprehension challenges, but I have yet to find any difficulty in understanding what Moses is saying. The grammatical errors he makes do not stand in the way of his messages getting across. Any lack of comprehension on our part is probably due to lack of understanding of the subject matter, rather than his use of English.

[francois]

Were you so uptight about one particular native English poster whose posts often run for 5, 6 or more lines with hardly any punctuation?


I think you meant Irish poster? I always wondered if he used a voice recognition program which did not include punctuation.

[fountainhall]

I think you meant Irish poster? I always wondered if he used a voice recognition program which did not include punctuation.
Ha! Let me restrict my comment to the fact that the posts were in English!

[Up2U]

Teeranai Charuvastra
29 March 2016
Vast Trove of Travelers’ Personal Info Posted on Govt Website

BANGKOK — Sensitive information of tens of thousands of foreign travelers, including their real names and passport numbers, was publicly available on a government website until it was taken down yesterday in response to publicity.

Operated by the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, the website displayed records of foreign travelers who passed through health checkpoints at Thai border controls, both air and land..... (read more)...... http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1459230109&section=14

[Moses]

Thank you friends, but I don't need protection :) As it has been stated by me already: I'm thick-skinned. If somebody doesn't understand my posts - that's his problem and I don't care. English is my 5-th language, it is poor and I know that. Do I proud with it? No. Do I sorry about it? No. I am who I am.

Smiles, you will leave forum just cuz "stupid barbar" is here? Good luck! You are looser.