Cyber Partisans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cyber Partisans
Кіберпартызаны
Belarus Cyber Partisans logo.jpg
Telegram group logo
FormationSeptember 2020
Typeanonymous activist/hacktivist collective
Purpose
Region served
Belarus
Websitehttps://t.me/cpartisans

Cyber Partisans (Belarusian: кіберпартызаны, Russian: киберпартизаны) is a Belarusian decentralized anonymous activist/hacktivist collective emerged in September 2020, known for its various cyber attacks against Belarusian government, government institutions and government agencies.

History and actions[]

The Cyber Partisans originated in September 2020 after the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and subsequent protests against its falsification by Alexander Lukashenko, and an authority-authorized police brutality.[1][2]

Initially, actions by the group were symbolic: they hacked state news websites (All-National TV, Belarus-1) and streamed videos showing scenes of police brutality; inserted the names of Lukashenko and the minister of Internal Affairs, Yury Karayeu, to a police most wanted list;[3] and "they defaced government websites with the red and white national flags favored by protesters over the official Belarusian red and green flag."[1][2]

In the interview to Bloomberg, hackers shared some details about themselves: they are 15 people, non of whom are professional hacker; of them only 3 or 4 perform the hacks, others deal with the analysis of obtained data. All of them are Belarusian IT-specialists, some were penetration testers before joining the group. They describe their activities as ethical hacking, as it goes only against the state and don't cause harm to ordinary citizens.[2][4]

Cyber Partisans work together with group, that consists of former Belarusian police officers working against Lukashenko's government. Their knowledge of database structure helps to plan and execute the Partisans' moves.[1][2]

In July 2021 they hacked the Ministry of Internal Affairs' most sensitive databases. Obtained material includes the archive of secretly recorded phone conversations, which amounts to almost 2 million minutes of audio, lists of alleged police informants, personal information about top government officials, video footage gathered from police drones and detention centers. They also got access to the databases for passports, all registered motor vehicles, recordings from the cameras in the Okrestina prison's isolation cells, mortality statistics (they've shared these data with the journalists who calculated the excess mortality during a COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus. They concluded that from March 2020 to March 2021, this figure was 32 thousand people - 14.4 times more than the authorities reported.[5][1]). The group published passport data of Lukashenko and his sons to prove that they really hacked that database. To prove that the hackers have the real data, journalists from currenttime.tv asked them to provide the data on themselves; the data the Partisans' provided were real.[5] Partisans also said in the interviews that they've sabotaged multiple security cameras and computer networks.

An anonymous spokesperson for the group told in an interview to MIT Technology Review:[4]

What we want is to stop the violence and repression from the terroristic regime in Belarus and to bring the country back to democratic principles and rule of law.

In August 2021, the court declared the information resources Cyber-Partizans and Cyber-Leaks (a subsidiary project of Cyberpartisans) to be extremist. In October, the Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized these telegram channels as an extremist formation.[6] The creation of such a formation or participation in it is a criminal offense in Belarus.[7] At the end of November, the Belarusian Supreme Court recognized the Cyber Partisans and other informal organizations as terrorist.[8]

Reaction[]

Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University and an expert on hacktivism and the Anonymous, commented to Bloomberg: “I don't think there are a lot of parallels to this, that they are so sophisticated and are attacking on multiple levels, it’s not something I’ve seen before except in the movies.”[2]

According to associate professor of Dublin City University, who specializes in protest and digital rights issues in Eastern Europe, “If ever Lukashenko ends up facing prosecution in the International Criminal Court, for example, these records are going to be incredibly important.”[2]

The head of the Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, said in a speech on state TV on July 30, 2021, that there had been “hacker attacks on personal data” and a “systematic collection of information,” and blamed “foreign special services”.[2]

Andrei Sannikov, a former Belarusian diplomat and a candidate at the 2010 presidential election in Belarus, in an interview to MIT Technology Review said that “They’re making the regime’s crimes transparent. The information they’re getting by hacking the state really is very eloquent in witnessing the criminal activities of the regime against the citizens.”[4]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Корелина, Ольга (August 27, 2021). "Белорусские "Киберпартизаны", кажется, взломали базы данных МВД и уже месяц публикуют компрометирующую силовиков информацию". Meduza. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Gallagher, Ryan (August 24, 2021). "Hackers Release Data Trove From Belarus in Bid to Overthrow Lukashenko Regime". Bloomberg. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Сайт МВД Беларуси взломали — и добавили Лукашенко в список разыскиваемых". Meduza. September 4, 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Howell O'Neill, Patrick (August 26, 2021). "Hackers are trying to topple Belarus's dictator, with help from the inside". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  5. ^ a b Сошников, Андрей (July 20, 2021). "Противостоящие Лукашенко "Киберпартизаны" получили паспортные данные и фото ВСЕХ белорусов. Фактчек Настоящего Времени и интервью с хакерами". Current Time TV. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  6. ^ "МВД признало «экстремистским формированием» телеграм‑канал и чат «Кибер‑Партизан»". MediaZona (in Russian). 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  7. ^ "BAJ demands to stop using anti-extremist legislation to restrict freedom of speech". Belarusian Association of Journalists. 17 November 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Верховный суд признал террористами «Киберпартизан» и еще несколько инициатив". Nasha Niva (in Russian). 2021-11-30.
Retrieved from ""