“The information provided in the [Facebook fanpage that opposes the single gateway] has been doctored,” the Army chief Chalermchai said.

“It can be observed that it is a list of tool supplies for Army engineers and the Secure Sockets Layer [SSL] decryptors comes last on the list. We don’t mix tool supplies with communication tools,” he said, advising people to use their discretion when assessing the report.

The response came after an Army procurement document allegedly showed the military had ordered the purchase of a decryption tool for decoding any information secured via SSL. It was shared by the Facebook page “Citizens Against the Single Gateway”, who alleged that the military is seeking to violate online privacy.

Chalermchai said the Army had never purchased such tools, as it was unrelated to its mission, adding that most devices procured were defensive.

With regard to current efforts to bring down or hack government websites, the Army chief said military experts were trying to trace the offenders, who he said should be brought to justice.

Director of the Army’s cyber centre Ritthi Intarawut said they had prepared to defend against any cyber attacks, and shrugged off the failure of several state websites after the legislators passed changes to the contentious computer crime law.

The websites attacked were mostly information distribution channels and contained no confidential information, he said.

However, Ritthi emphasised the need of the cyber-crime law, citing the current attacks on government websites and the emergence of “4.0” policies to allow more trading via the Internet, or e-commerce.

He said cyber crime not only posed threats to national security, but also to members of the public whose daily life was intertwined with information technology and communication devices. So, the legal measures were necessary to curb such problems, he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha insisted yesterday that investigations and prosecutions against people accused of hacking government websites need to be carried out. “They broke laws so they must be arrested. Don’t ask much [about that],” Prayut said.

“Is it rightful to continually expose information? Society must understand [us] about this,” he said.

The PM was referring to a series of claims from hackers who said they had been ‘successful’ in revealing confidential information from some state websites in their campaign to oppose the new computer crime law.