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Activist has Skype, email accounts hacked as pressure mounts on anti-Lukashenka online community

Anton Skaryna, a key activist of “The Revolution through Social Networks,” has had his Skype and email accounts hacked, said another member of the anti-Lukashenka online community.

“Unidentified people currently have access to Anton’s Skype account,” he said. There are many opposition politicians and activists among the young man’s Skype contacts and the cyber attack could be used for “provocations,” the community member warned

In addition, he said, the hacker attack also targeted the online community’s page at VKontakte, a Russian-language social network, but was fought off.

“We linked this incident to Belarusian security services’ fear of the possibility of fresh protests that may be organized by the community this summer. Considering the latest events, one can conclude that security services have been tasked with obtaining information about the campaign’s plans and trying to destroy the community by any means,” the member said.

The attack follows last month’s one-day detention of the girlfriend of the online community’s Polish-based coordinator, Vyachaslaw Dziyanaw, who was interrogated for hours and had her computer seized by authorities.

In April, two activists of the online community also had their computers seized. One of them, Anastasiya Shuleyka, was sentenced to 10 days in jail on a disorderly conduct charge.

The community was behind last summer’s “silent” protests that were held across the country and prompted the authorities to further tighten rules governing demonstrations and other mass events. //BelaPAN