By Siyabonga Ntshingila ;
The reclusive state of Burma, also known as Mynamar, has been cut off from
global networks after a massive cyber attack on its national systems.
The attack comes as the country builds up to elections on Sunday that have
been dismissed by pro-democracy advocates.
It is believed to have started late in October before escalating in the past
two days.
Some believe the attack is being orchestrated by the country's ruling
military junta as a means of restricting the flow of information outside the
country.
The attack has taken the form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
which works by flooding a designated target with an overwhelming amount of
data.
It typically uses hijacked computers, most from unknowing users whose
machine harbour viruses, who make endless requests from the network, causing
it to jam and finally, crash.
The junta has banned international observers and foreign journos from
covering the poll.
Burma last held elections in 1990 which were won by the National League for
Democracy (NLD) led by pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
The election result failed to dislodge the ruling junta and Kyi has been
under house arrest for most of the time since then.
