Belarusian Hackers Leaked Police Personal Information
Belarusian Hackers Leaked Police Personal Information | |
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Short Title | Belarusian “Cyberguerrillas" Hacked Into the Base of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Employees |
Location | Belarus |
Date | September 2020 |
Solove Harm | Insecurity, Blackmail |
Information | Identifying, Physical Characteristics, Contact, Professional |
Threat Actors | Belarusian hackers, Ministry of Inernal Affairs of Belarus |
Individuals | |
Affected | Belarusian MIA employees |
High Risk Groups | Law Enforcement Officer |
Tangible Harms |
Belarusian hackers who call themselves cyberguerrillas hacked into the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs containing personal information of the Ministry employees. The database was then published as a response to police brutality against protesters in Belarus.
Description
In late summer and fall 2020 after presidential elections hundreds of thousands of Belarusians went on the streets to protest election falsifications and police brutality, after the Central Electoral Committee announced the victory of the president Lukashenko (who has been in power since 1994) with allegedly more than 80% of votes.
Secret and riot police who were responsible for the unlawful arrests and detentions and brutality against protesters were avoiding any identification (e.g. starting beating up protesters without introducing themselves or showing documents, wearing uniform without showing their police ID number, wearing face masks, etc).
On September 11, a popular Belarusian Telegram channel NEXTA published news, that a group of hackers, who call themselves "cyberguerrillas" (kiberpartyzany) were able to hack and steal a database from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, containing personal information of a few dozens of thousands of Ministry employees. Insecurity
The authors of the NEXTA channel then publicly blackmailed the police officers with publishing the detailed personal information from that database if the police brutality doesn’t stop immideately.
A few days after the information started being published by NEXTA, as promised.
Breakdown
Threat: Ministry of Internal Affairs not protecting database with personal information of its employees from unauthorised access
At-Risk group: Belarus police officers
Harm: Insecurity
Secondary Consequences: not known
Threat: The authors of the NEXTA channel threatening to publish police officers personal information if they dont stop the violence against protesters
At-Risk group: Belarus police officers
Harm: Blackmail
Secondary Consequences: not known