Internet Shutdown in Belarus / Official version: DDoS Attacks
12/08/2020
Cyberattacks against websites of government agencies expected to have no effect on Belarus' CEC work
MINSK, 9 August (BelTA) – Cyberattacks against websites of government agencies should have no effect on the operation of the Central Election Commission, BelTA learned from Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Vadim Ipatov on 9 August.
The official said: “I don't think it will affect the commission's work in any way because we work on a very important task of political nature. We have to make sure that the election proceeds in line with the Belarusian legislation. We haven't noticed that anything has happened to our website so far. There are ways of doing our work without Internet resources. We've already discussed all these things as we were preparing for the election campaign.”
In his words, voters are highly active during the election campaign, including at polling stations abroad. “People didn't wait for the polling stations to close but went to cast their votes right away. This picture definitely spurs us and indicates that everything should be perfectly organized,” the official noted.
DDoS attacks against Belarusian Internet resources continue
MINSK, 10 August (BelTA) – Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Belarusian Internet resources continue unabated, BelTA learned from the website of the National Computer Emergency Response Team CERT.BY.
A wave of DDoS attacks against Belarusian websites was registered on 9 August. “Attacks continue throughout the day today. Websites of government agencies and organizations are mainly targeted,” CERT.BY said.
Various types of flood attacks designed to saturate bandwidth with data packets and deprive the victim of the ability to use Internet access have been registered since the attacks began. CERT.BY also mentioned attacks meant to deplete server resources (CPU, RAM, and so on).
The total strength of some attacks exceeded 200Gbps. All of them were repulsed by defensive solutions of Belarusian Internet service providers.
A particularly large number of attacks targeted the website of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus. They were carried out at 19:41 and 23:20 on 9 August.
Lukashenko blames poor Internet service in Belarus on foreign parties
MINSK, 10 August (BelTA) – Foreign parties have shut down Belarus' links to the World Wide Web, the local authorities did not do it. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he met with Sergei Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary, head of the CIS observation mission during the presidential election.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Some people call for rioting in the streets. They even turn off Internet access from the outside in order to anger Belarusians. Our specialists are now looking for the source of this blockade. This is why if Internet service is bad, look for foreign parties to blame, it was not our initiative.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, parties unknown are trying to pressure Belarus from various sides and employ hybrid war tactics. “But we will endure,” the president stressed.
DDoS attacks against Belarusian telecommunications infrastructure, websites declining
MINSK, 12 August (BelTA) – The number of massive DDoS attacks against the infrastructure of Belarusian telecommunications companies as well as websites of government agencies and organizations was reduced considerably on 12 August, BelTA learned from the republican unitary enterprise National Traffic Exchange Center.
According to the source, emergency recovery work has been finished in the partner networks, which are located in neighboring countries. The republican unitary enterprise National Traffic Exchange Center has managed to fully restore access to Internet resources. Specialists of the enterprise continue working together with other Belarusian telecom carriers to restore equipment and resume access to the Internet. The work will be finished soon. The National Traffic Exchange Center offered apologies for the inconveniences.
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