14 DAY TRIAL // A local developer has made a gaffe for the ages when he set up an improperly protected demo for a site commissioned by Thailand's Immigration Police.
The test website didn't block public access and also featured a simple password (12345) for the administrator account. What made it worse was the fact that it contained actual details (not dummy data) for about 2,000 foreign workers living in Thailand.
The site exposed real names, passport numbers, current addresses, and professions. The website included details only for workers in Thailand's southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The site went viral on social media in a matter of hours, and many were accusing the government of incompetence. Local Internet advocacy group Thai Netizen Network tracked down the website to a company called Youngcyber Digital Technology.
The website was only a demo that used real expat data
In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Akram Aleeming, the developer at Youngcyber Digital Technology in charge of the website, admitted his mistake, saying that the site was never supposed to be public. The site was taken offline yesterday morning, Monday, March 28.
He said the site was set up only as a demo for Thailand's Immigration Police, who commissioned it as part of a national plan to create a database of immigrants currently living in the country.
Thailand has seen an influx of immigrants who enter the country with a valid visa but remain to work for more than they initially declared. Thai Immigration Police is building this database as a way to keep track of all the expats currently on its territory, the time they're supposed to stay, and their last known location.
In recent months, Thailand's government has been having serious problems in the cyber realm, but most of the time, they have been caused by Anonymous. The hacker collective has hacked the country's Supreme Court, many police websites, and even prison sites.