With Myanmar now well into its fifth year of military rule, the country’s 54 million people continue to suffer what the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has described as an “unprecedented polycrisis” marked by widespread conflict, a devastated economy, and a deteriorating public health and education system.

While outside powers, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have focused their efforts on halting hostilities and ensuring humanitarian access, the situation in cyberspace has attracted less attention. Yet, it is worth reviewing the three major recent developments that highlight the current state of Myanmar’s military-controlled cyberspace.

Cybercrime Rampage

The first development has been the alarming proliferation of cybercrime in Myanmar, in particular, online scam mills that run cyber fraud, “pig-butchering” scams, and unauthorized online gambling operations.

Cybercrime operations have been plaguing Myanmar and its neighbors for much of the past decade, but these cyber-enabled scamming activities did not take root on a large scale until the COVID-19 pandemic and the coup d’état of February 1, 2021, which combined to produce what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has described as a “scamdemic” in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s fractured state jurisdictions have provided the ideal conditions for these criminal operations to take root. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, Myanmar currently ranks second on the Conflict Index, with the greatest number of active non-state armed groups of any nation