Key opposition news site resumes normal operation after massive cyber attack

Key opposition news website charter97.org resumed normal operation late on December 29 following a massive cyber attack.

When reached by BelaPAN, Natallya Radzina, the Vilnius-based editor of the website, said that its administrators would work throughout the night to restore its archives.

She said that the unknown hackers had deleted much of the site's content and posted an untrue report about former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw and his wife Iryna Khalip.

The hackers apparently stole the administrators' passwords with the help of malware that infected the computer of one of the website's workers, Ms. Radzina said.

Ms. Radzina, who fled Belarus earlier this year, earlier expressed certainty that Belarusian secret services were behind the attack.

While the website had been targeted by cyber attacks before, the latest one was described as unprecedented.

Ms. Radzina, who fled Belarus earlier this year, said that attempts had also been made to hack into the mail accounts of Ms. Khalip, Mr. Sannikaw's sister Iryna Bahdanava and Natallya Kalyada, director of Free Theater.