Thai website to protect the king

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Note that the new registrant information may be fictitious.

Undoubtedly ficticious, Londonderry is in Northern Ireland, Liverpool in the Northwest of England and Tyneside the Northeast of England. They cannot appear as part of a single address...

David

[Khun Don]

For the .net (Note that the new registrant information may be fictitious):


Registrant Contact:
James Taylor
41 Hope Street
Londonderry
Liverpool, TYNESIDE L21 7HB
GB

Expiration date: 21 Oct 2010 11:41:00

You bet it is! Londonderry is in N. Ireland, Liverpool is in Lancashire on the West coast of UK , (Tyneside is on the East coast,) Hope Street is in L1 postal district.

[Richard Barrow]

Official forgot to relist protecttheking site
Hackers not responsible for webpage 'hijacking'

* Published: 7/12/2009 at 12:00 AM
* Bangkok Post

The website protecttheking.net was not hacked into but was left open to be modified by other users through a bureaucratic bungle, an investigation has found.

The inquiry found a parliamentary official did not renew the registration of the domain name allowing other users to take over the site. PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey and acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn claimed on Thursday the website had been hacked.

The link to http://www.protecttheking.net now shows a finance company advertisement with an illustration of a fairytale king instead of the website's usual entry page.

Mr Sathit and Mr Panitan insisted last week after the error was revealed that the government would track down the "hackers". However, when an alliance of independent IT security experts looked into the suspected break-in, they found things were not as they seemed.

"The website was not hacked," concludes the group's report obtained by the Bangkok Post.

"It has been taken over by other users because the domain registrar did not renew the domain name before its Sept 4, 2009, expiry date."

The official registry for protecttheking.net claims it has been now owned since Oct 21. by a Liverpool-based British businessman. The experts yesterday submitted copies of their report to the PM's Office and the subcommittee of a house panel on military affairs, which handles issues like lese majeste website suppression.

The subcommittee asked the lower house secretariat to register the domain name in September last year as part of a crackdown on websites with content deemed insulting to the monarchy.

The website was registered late in 2008, and launched officially in January of this year with great fanfare, to encourage citizens to register lese majeste complaints.

The domain name provider reminded the Thai official to renew the registration, but nothing was done, the report said.

"The working group recommends that agencies buy back the domain name from the current owner or register the new domain name as http://www.protecttheking.go.th," the report says.

Registering the government-run website with .go.th, instead of the widely used .com or .net will prevent the hijacking of domain names and give the government total authority over the site.

[carolinainmymind]

I am 'Carly Simon', the new owner of protecttheking.net. Well done to those who spotted that Liverpool, Londonderry and Tyneside cannot possibly be a correct address.

On a serious note, I never knew this domain would cause such a commotion and certainly didn't intend it to. I have apologised on the main page of the site but as I'm sure you will be aware it was not my blunder that led to the domain expiring. Anyone who has ever regged a domain knows you get about 5-10 reminders before its actually allowed to expire and then a couple of weeks grace where you can grab it back from whoever has regged it.


I will probably hold an eBay auction for this domain next week...too hot for me. I'm sure there will be plenty of bidders.

[Curt]

McCarthyism, 2009 Thai style.

It's sad, really. I have always thought it was quite sweet, the peoples reverence for their king. With steps like this, more people will probably lose some of it.