Data Leak Occurred in Service for Appeals to State Bodies. Famous Propagandists Also Exposed.
Personal data of Belarusians registered in the service «Obrashcheniya.bel» for electronic interaction with state bodies became available through the popular Telegram bot «Sherlock», which is used for searching personal information. The leak was reported by the publication «Zerkalo». There have been no official reports about the incident.
Data appeared in the bot's database, marked as user data of «Obrashcheniya.bel». A check showed that genuine appeals from citizens to state bodies can be found through the service.
Among the data that fell into the wrong hands are surnames, first names and patronymics, phone numbers, email addresses, and in some cases, identification numbers, as well as the texts of the appeals. Dates of submission of appeals and attached documents are not in the database. The publication could not determine how many people were affected by the leak.
The database, in particular, contained information about Sergey Belikov, the director of the state company «Center for Digital Development», which developed «Obrashcheniya.bel». His appeal with a single word — «Check» — was preserved. Perhaps he was one of the first users of the platform and was testing its operation.
Appeals from Lyudmila Gladkaya, an employee of the state newspaper «SB», also made it into the database. In one of them, she thanked medical staff for the assistance provided, and in the second, she demanded a refutation of an article in a district publication.
Pro-Russian activist Olga Bondareva, according to the leaked data, complained about the «actions of a group of individuals» who, as stated in the appeal, discriminated against her, published false information harming her reputation, and exerted public psychological pressure on her.
More than 413,000 individuals, as well as about 19,000 state bodies and organizations, are registered in the «Obrashcheniya.bel» service. Since 2023, electronic appeals to state institutions are accepted only through this platform. Its developer is the «Center for Digital Development», which is subordinate to the Ministry of Communications.
According to current rules, in the event of a personal data leak, the system operator is obliged to report it to the National Center for Personal Data Protection. The Center publishes information about the most significant incidents. This year, for example, cases were reported where unauthorized persons gained access to the data of Belarusian clients of companies «Dodo Pizza», «General Leasing» and «Maxbet-M».
However, no official information about the leak from «Obrashcheniya.bel» has appeared. According to «Zerkalo», this could mean that the service administrators are not yet aware of the incident, or that a decision was made at some stage not to report it.
If an individual believes that their rights in the field of personal data protection have been violated, they can file a complaint with the National Center for Personal Data Protection.
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