Internet Provider: We Have Equipment That Only Intelligence Services Have Access To

Information about users is available to the intelligence officers constantly, in any quantity and at any time.

On July 7, the International non-governmental organization Amnesty International published a report which says that the Belarusian intelligence services use the mobile operators for unrestricted spying on the citizens. Euroradio has tried to figure out whether this is true.

The Amnesty International report says that companies operating in Belarus are obliged to give the authorities access to any data at any time. Therefore, if the KGB wants to spy on someone, it doesn’t need a warrant, it doesn’t need to ask the company for access.

Information Security Specialist Ilya P., says that all mobile operators and Internet service providers (ISPs) were obliged to install a special equipment for the SORM system - System for Operative Investigative Activities. In fact, this equipment provides instant access to any information stored on the servers of the providers and mobile operators. Specialists explain that using SORM the intelligence officers can get constant access to the information about users, in any quantity and at any time. The ISPs may not know about the fact of receiving the information.

It is also reported by the press service of the Internet service provider "Atlant Telecom":

“Operators install special equipment on their networks in accordance with the current legislation. Law enforcement agencies are users of the equipment and they operate in accordance with their internal instructions and regulations. The operators don’t have access to this equipment and any information about its usage because they do not participate in the operational-investigative activity and have no controlling functions.”

The report also states that the legislative framework regulating the procedure for secret surveillance in Belarus is characterized by the lack of appropriate security assurances and allows the authorities to carry out large-scale surveillance virtually without any justification.

The chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak also confirms this. He says that the laws relating to this field are very unsystematic and have vague wording. There is a law on the operational-investigative activity, according to which if the person is suspected of committing a crime, it is possible to get access to all the data on him or her on the approval of a procurator.

But the law has been repeatedly extended and now you can obtain this information without a warrant of a procurator by an order of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the chairman of the KGB, the State Control Committee and a number of other bodies.