Myanmar Cyberatttacks: Irrawaddy and DVB websites shut down

Two leading dissident websites the Irrawaddy (out of Chang Mai, Thailand) and the Democratic Voice of Burma (out of Norway) have been shut down due to cyberattacks. The Irrawaddy reports (from an alternate site):

Our Web site has been crippled and disabled by DDoS attacks since Wednesday.

. . . Our Web hosting companies have been assisting us day and night tracing IP addresses to identify the cyber criminals.

Exiled media organizations, including The Irrawaddy, believe that foreign agents and cyber criminals have been hired to attack exiled Burmese Web sites.

We have offered our solidarity to fellow media Web sites, including the Democratic Voice of Burma and New Era Journal. They too have been badly crippled by the DDoS attacks.

In other Burma news, the regime is reportedly holding 212 monks in prison, including monk-activist leader U Gambira. The lawyer of Aung San Suu Kyi will shortly be on his way to Naypyidaw to appeal his client's continued detention. After a four-week hunger strike -- which Jotman reported on back in August but the mainstream media generally ignored -- Suu Kyi is now receiving food by way of an intravenous tube.