Belarusian users barred from websites covering the presidential election
Author: Mikhail Doroshevich
10/09/2001
Many websites covering the Belarusian presidential elections experienced various suspicious problems with their domains on election day.
On the evening of 8 September, various Belarusian independent mass media and non-government organizations saw some of their records deleted from the DNS zone 'BY' domain, which is supported by the State Centre for the Information Security of the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus.
Then, on the afternoon of 9 September, internationally placed websites had their IP addresses blocked by the Belpak router, which as a state-owned company holds the monopoly for outer channels.
From that point on, Belarus users then could not gain access to such websites as 'svaboda.org', 'charter97.org', 'racyja.pl', 'goncharik.org', and 'vybor.org', which covered Belarusian presidential elections. Users then had to get access from anonymous proxies and safeweb.com.
By the next morning, however, on 10 September, Belpak unblocked the website addresses and allowed the BY domain to resume its normal function.
KGB officials have denied any involvement in the suspicious events that happened on 8 and 9 of September.
Useful links:
BY Domain Zone
Beltelecom
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E-Belarus.ORG, 2001-2011
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