The economy in Belarus lost almost $170 million in the three days of an internet shutdown that began last Sunday (August 9) during a presidential election.
Babel reports that the figure was supplied by NetBlocks, a non-governmental organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, using data from the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European Commission (EC), the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Brookings Institution’s Advanced Technology methodology.
It adds that control points for the internet in Belarus are managed by only two government-controlled companies, namely the incumbent telco Beltelecom and National Traffic Exchange Centre.
On August 9, all the country’s communication channels were routed to a single communication node that filtered encrypted traffic. Although Belarus’s President Lukashenko says that the shutdown was caused by foreign influence rather than the state, experts believe it could only have achieved internally as any external actions would have had to involve Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
Meanwhile, Beltelecom has referred to the period August 9-11 as one in which cyberattacks of varying intensity being recorded. It is also compensating customers for the loss of service on the three days.
