60
Vee Vian Thien
11. Ibid.
12. Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “ Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace, ”
in Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace , ed. Ronald Deibert,
John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010),
22 – 28.
13. For more details, see the Malaysia country profi le in this volume.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, sec. 263(2).
17. On August 27, 2008, MCMC issued an order to all Malaysian ISPs to deny access to Malaysia
Today. As of 6:00 p.m. local time that day, only TMNet subscribers reported problems accessing
the site — other ISPs ’ subscribers were still able to access the site. The DNS block lasted less than
two weeks. The government decided to lift the ban on September 11, 2008, but detained Malaysia
Today’s administrator, Raja Petra Kamarudin, the following day. See generally, Debra Chong and
Shannon Teoh, “ Cyberspace Crackdown Limited to Malaysia-Today Website . . . for Now, ” Malaysian Insider , August 28, 2008, http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/cyberspace_
crackdown_limited_to_malaysia_today_website_for_now.html ; Sim Leoi Leoi and Florence A.
Samy, “ MCMC Told to Unblock Malaysia Today (Update 2), ” The Star , September 11, 2008, http://
thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi le=/2008/9/11/nation/20080911145128 & sec=nation . Note also
that some commentators classify Malaysia Today as a news portal because it aggregates news
from other sources. For my purposes, Malaysia Today is counted as a blog because Raja Petra
self-identifi es as a blogger. In addition, his views , not the site ’ s aggregation of news, are arguably
the main attraction of Malaysia Today.
18. For further details on DDoS attacks, see Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey,
“ Interconnected Contests: Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Other Digital Control Measures in Asia, ” chapter 7 in this volume.
19. On September 15, 2009, after Raja Petra posted a story on an MYR 12.5 billion (approximately
USD 4 billion) corruption case involving the prime minister, which he corroborated by releasing
PDFs of leaked classifi ed cabinet documents, “ suspicious activity ” was reported attacking the site
on the next day, September 16, 2009. The fi rst round of hacking damaged the site on September
17, 2009, but the site ’ s technical team managed to permit access to Malaysia Today by 6:00 p.m.
local time. Subsequently, DDoS attacks ranging from 227 to 835 Mbps from proxy servers crippled
the site ’ s Singaporean node with the overwhelming traffi c on the next day. See Raja Petra
Kamarudin, “ The Attacks on Malaysia Today, ” Malaysia Today, September 29, 2009, http://www
.malaysia-today.net/archives/27311-the-attacks-on-malaysia-today-udpated-with-chinese
-translation . A year later, Raja Petra again released a slew of documents from August 15 to August
27, 2010, this time on a controversial governmental buyback of Malaysian Airlines at the same
price at which it was privatized, despite the MYR 8 billion (USD 2.6 billion) in losses accumulated
Vee Vian Thien
11. Ibid.
12. Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “ Control and Subversion in Russian Cyberspace, ”
in Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace , ed. Ronald Deibert,
John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010),
22 – 28.
13. For more details, see the Malaysia country profi le in this volume.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, sec. 263(2).
17. On August 27, 2008, MCMC issued an order to all Malaysian ISPs to deny access to Malaysia
Today. As of 6:00 p.m. local time that day, only TMNet subscribers reported problems accessing
the site — other ISPs ’ subscribers were still able to access the site. The DNS block lasted less than
two weeks. The government decided to lift the ban on September 11, 2008, but detained Malaysia
Today’s administrator, Raja Petra Kamarudin, the following day. See generally, Debra Chong and
Shannon Teoh, “ Cyberspace Crackdown Limited to Malaysia-Today Website . . . for Now, ” Malaysian Insider , August 28, 2008, http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/legal/general_news/cyberspace_
crackdown_limited_to_malaysia_today_website_for_now.html ; Sim Leoi Leoi and Florence A.
Samy, “ MCMC Told to Unblock Malaysia Today (Update 2), ” The Star , September 11, 2008, http://
thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi le=/2008/9/11/nation/20080911145128 & sec=nation . Note also
that some commentators classify Malaysia Today as a news portal because it aggregates news
from other sources. For my purposes, Malaysia Today is counted as a blog because Raja Petra
self-identifi es as a blogger. In addition, his views , not the site ’ s aggregation of news, are arguably
the main attraction of Malaysia Today.
18. For further details on DDoS attacks, see Hal Roberts, Ethan Zuckerman, and John Palfrey,
“ Interconnected Contests: Distributed Denial of Service Attacks and Other Digital Control Measures in Asia, ” chapter 7 in this volume.
19. On September 15, 2009, after Raja Petra posted a story on an MYR 12.5 billion (approximately
USD 4 billion) corruption case involving the prime minister, which he corroborated by releasing
PDFs of leaked classifi ed cabinet documents, “ suspicious activity ” was reported attacking the site
on the next day, September 16, 2009. The fi rst round of hacking damaged the site on September
17, 2009, but the site ’ s technical team managed to permit access to Malaysia Today by 6:00 p.m.
local time. Subsequently, DDoS attacks ranging from 227 to 835 Mbps from proxy servers crippled
the site ’ s Singaporean node with the overwhelming traffi c on the next day. See Raja Petra
Kamarudin, “ The Attacks on Malaysia Today, ” Malaysia Today, September 29, 2009, http://www
.malaysia-today.net/archives/27311-the-attacks-on-malaysia-today-udpated-with-chinese
-translation . A year later, Raja Petra again released a slew of documents from August 15 to August
27, 2010, this time on a controversial governmental buyback of Malaysian Airlines at the same
price at which it was privatized, despite the MYR 8 billion (USD 2.6 billion) in losses accumulated