News
Belarusian cyber vigilantes have released proof of the government listening in on all domestic conversations, including those of the employees of foreign embassies and consulates. The Russian embassy is no exception.
Having hacked into classified servers of the Department of Day-to-Day Investigation Activity (DOORD) of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, an anonymous hacker group calling itself Cyber Partisans published the conversations of Russian embassy employees intercepted in 2020–2021.
“How is it compliant with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, we wonder?” the hackers ironize.
As proof, they offer phone conversations of the MIA's Security Services Department spokesperson with several diplomats from the Russian embassy. Other published wiretaps include private citizens’ calls to the embassy and its employees’ personal conversations.
The hackers claim to be in possession of similar recordings of conversations between employees of other embassies and consulates in Belarus.
Cyber Partisans started their activity in Belarus in September 2020, soon after the presidential election. The cyber activists hacked into the websites of Belarusians state-owned channels and aired reels of protesters being arrested, published calls for mass protests on government websites, and exposed security agents whom they believed to be complicit in torturing protesters. Their Telegram channels, Кибер-Партизаны (“Cyber Partisans”) and Кибер-сливы (“Cyber Leaks”) have been announced extremist in Belarus.