Police vehicles barricade a road outside Sule Pagoda, next to Yangon City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar on February 16. Photo: VCG

Hackers attacked Myanmar government websites Thursday to protest against the military upheaval, as the junta pressed on with its attempts to stymie nationwide opposition with internet blockades and troop deployments.

The cyberattacks came a day after tens of thousands of people rallied across the country to protest against the generals toppling Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government earlier in February.

A group called Myanmar Hackers disrupted websites including the Central Bank, the Myanmar military's page, state-run broadcaster MRTV, the Port Authority, and the Food and Drug Administration.

"We are fighting for justice in Myanmar," the group said on its Facebook page. "It is like mass protesting of people in front of government websites."

Cybersecurity expert Matt Warren from Australia's RMIT University said it was likely aimed to generate publicity. 

"The sorts of attacks they would be undertaking are denial of service attacks or defacing websites which is called hacktivism," he told AFP.

"The impact will be potentially limited but what they are doing is raising awareness."

Internet access was severely curtailed for the fourth night running at about 1 am on Thursday, according to NetBlocks, a Britain-based group that monitors internet outages around the world.

It said connectivity had dropped to just 21 percent of ordinary levels, and was restored eight hours later ahead of the start of the working day.

AFP