The Irrawaddy’s Web site Disabled by Virus

The Web site of The Irrawaddy News Magazine, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese news agency, was infected by a virus beginning on September 27.

The attack of unknown origin tried to spread the so-called “Trojan Horse” virus into the site as well as to Web site visitors.

Rest assured. If you view our Web site, you will not receive a virus. There is no danger to your computer as you view The Irrawaddy Web site. You will be automatically redirected to a safe mirror site addressed as www.irrawaddymedia.com.

A “trojan” virus is a type that usually masquerades as something else—an image, a video file or the like.

A quick investigation by The Irrawaddy’s technical staff revealed that a malicious code had been inserted into the site’s main page. This led to a virtual ‘traffic jam.’

The code caused browsers to download hidden files in the background, eating up all available bandwidth on the server.

It is still not known whether the virus was infected via e-mails or a direct hack to the server.

When some readers browsed our site, they got infected. The virus also caused slow internet connections, according to our research. The site had been attacked since Thursday and was totally down for a few hours on Saturday.

The Irrawaddy is an independent and non-profit news organization not affiliated with any political opposition group or government and was established in 1993 by Burmese exile journalists.

The Irrawaddy apologizes for any inconveniences to our readers. We will update readers as conditions warrant.