Источник: БРЦ
The Belarusian Investigative Center denies reports that its chatbot was hacked. On 2 April, Raman Pratasevich claimed on the STV television channel that the chatbot had been hacked. He said that data on everyone who had written to the chatbot was allegedly available to the security services. Screenshots of messages from the “hacked bot” were shown.
Earlier, the Belarusian Investigative Center announced that it was shutting down the chatbot, explaining that it was improving its security system. The BIC team says there was no hack and no data leak.
“After BIC announced that it was switching to receiving confidential messages through private messages on its Telegram channel and shutting down the chatbot you previously used to contact us, Belarusian state media continued to claim that we had done so because the chatbot had allegedly been hacked by the Belarusian security services,” the BIC said.
The Belarusian Investigative Center called the screenshots shown on state television fake.
“These screenshots are fake. After an additional internal review, we have no reason to believe that our chatbot was hacked,” the BIC said.
The BIC warned about the existence of a fake BIC bot, @ NovajaZiamlaBot. People who wrote to it may face repression.
“If you wrote there, you may face repressive measures from the Belarusian authorities. Advice on possible further steps can be obtained from the evacuation service BySol.
If you wrote to the real BIC chatbot — @ NovajaZiamla_bot — or accessed it via a link from our Telegram channel, we currently have no reason to believe that you face any additional risks,” the BIC said.
The BIC team is also checking information spread by propagandists about the hacking of the investigatebel.org website. A preliminary review “did not reveal any significant additional risks in this matter either”, but more time will be needed for a full review.
As previously reported, on 31 March the KGB recognised the BIC as an “extremist formation”. Nineteen people were named as being associated with it.