An interview with a cyber participant in our attacks on dictatorial resources. Meet Moore. 🐯 He tells us how hacks work, what it's like to be a hacktivist, and how to get closer to victory. ✊
To Become a Cyberpartisan
Tell us, what do you do for Cyberpartisans?
It seems that I try to deprive uneducated monkeys from using computer technology against Belarusians and Ukrainians.
And for how long? 😄
Directly in the Cyberpartisan group since the summer of 2021.
Before that you helped another protest organization?
The "Storks".
And why did you choose The "Storks" and Cyberpartisans among all the protest groups?
Cyberpartisans were inspiring from day one of their existence. I wanted to join them, but I realised that my qualifications as a hacker would not be enough. So I just followed the channel.
At some point, The "Storks" initiative was advertised on the Cyberpartisans channel. Since Cyberpartisans had a certain authority for me in absentia, I decided to take a closer look at The "Storks". I liked the way people presented the fight and the methods they proposed. I decided to write to the bot.
And what was the first impression from the cooperation?
Basically from the communication it was clear that these people have a brain from birth in their head, and have been training it for quite a long time. This was different from other groups I had worked with before.
It seemed to me that if anyone has a chance to change something in Belarus, it is these very people with brains and education.
So the skills that allow you to participate in hacking, you got them in the Cyberpartisan group?
Before Cyberpartisans, as a specialist even in my industry, I was two levels below. A year among Cyberpartisans is like 3 years of intensive practice in a cool office at the edge of the market, or like 5 years in a normal quiet mode. A mega-cool intensive.
About Hacking And Cyberattacks
How do you feel after a successful cyber operation?
A feeling of immense relief, just like after any hard sustained work. It may seem from the outside that the cyberpartisans are wizards who enter any network as if it were their home, and it's all about "find a vulnerability, press a button and everything collapses".
In reality, a large successful attack means months of painstaking preparatory work. It's hundreds of gigabytes of studied documents, days and nights spent setting up attack scripts, a lot of headaches and eyes popping out from the tension. At the very moment of hacking, sometimes we had to continue working for almost 2 days without a single break in interactive mode, because at the same time the admins on the other side were desperately trying to prevent it.
There's also a sense of accomplishment. This is a completely wrong perception that there is a big war going on. And until the big "dudes" are fighting, there's no point in getting involved, there's nothing you can do to help. In fact, the big victory will be achieved just by countless tiny but real deeds.
And what real deeds bring our victory closer in your opinion?
Ready to go on attacks and kill the invaders - go to the RKK as a fighter, not enough courage for such a thing - it's normal, not everyone is born a hero at once, go to be a car mechanic or a medic. You understand IT - break the state systems and the sponsors of the war. Engineer? Help the RKK with designs and technological processes for drones or other weapons. Know English? Translate and distribute news about Ukraine, Belarus, torture of prisoners, etc. A marketing expert? Use your brain and make a viral video for Kalinovsky's regiment. Official? Help Cyberpartisans with access to computer networks. Can't do anything at all? Donate directly to the fighters. Are you too scared to do it from Belarus? Buy a ticket to Turkey or Sakartvelo and pay from there.
Or even just go and take all the money off the card and throw it in the rubbish. Because right now Belarusians keep tens of billions of dollars on various card accounts and deposits, and the junta tortures and destroys them with this money. The junta has no "own" money to support all this repressive apparatus and will never have it. It is mostly the savings and taxes of those very Belarusians who are against the war and for democracy.
Which of our public cyberoperations, where you participated, are you most proud of?
When I succeeded in stopping railway traffic in Belarus, I thought: "Well, if by this at least one Ukrainian was saved from death, then my life was not in vain". Then reports began to come in that the Rashists started to fail in logistics on that section.....
This future victory will be entirely the merit of brave Ukrainians. And it is great luck that we were able to bring it even a little closer. We will endeavour to help more often and on a larger scale.
About CyberPartisans And Changes
What is it to you to be a Cyberpartisan?
Being a Cyberpartisan means doing the impossible yourself and watching ordinary guys do impossible things too.
Ask any IT expert - can a small volunteer group, amongst other things, hack into absolutely ALL government databases, wiretap police chiefs or stop a railway? You will quite definitely be told "it's impossible".
At first, I too managed to say "it's impossible" to someone's ideas. Now that combination of words no longer exists for me.
How did the 2020 protests in Belarus affect you in general?
When mass protests began in 2020, I was really shocked. Some of the people whom I "behind the eyes" had written down as supported Lukashenko actually turned out to be just real guardians of the remaining Belarus - with flags in their wardrobes, their native language, and a firm desire to change things where they had gone.
I also didn't count much on the young, those who were born and grew up during the usurper's autocracy. I thought that we had time to live in a short period of relative democracy, and they had not even seen such things in their lives as free press, pluralism, rallies. I was wrong, too. People are born with freedom. And even 30 years did not break those people who did not want to be broken.
How did participation in the CyberPartisan group affect you?
Psychologically, participation in CyberPartisans had less of an impact than this horde of young people with glowing eyes who were ready to decide their own fate, who to be friends with, how much to pay for gas, what color their house would be and how high the lawn on the playground would be. The fact that they have not yet got their chance for "people's power" is not so terrible. The main thing is that we have them, and there are a lot of them.
The cyber partisans have added a sense of calm and hope. There are a lot of people here willing to play the long game. Some of them don't seem to be scared of the 10 years of struggle ahead.
Most Telegram channels reek of 100% rottenness and all-propaganda. Among Cyberpatisans, of course, it can happen, one or the other gets a bit of a headache. But in general, people are holding on, working, and not going to give up, not even close.
How do you like working in our group?
Cyberpartisans are a paradise in real life. There is only one problem with participating in the Cyberpartisans: the real danger. If the special services [of the Republic of Belarus or the Russian Federation] find out and get hold of you, you will get your head cut off live on all channels, instead of a lullaby for your children. As an example, so to speak.
And in terms of anonymity, is it hard for you to be anonymous?
I'm a total introvert. I live by the "two is too many" formula. If there's anyone else around, I feel uncomfortable.
So I'm willing to be anonymous for the rest of my life. Ideally, I would like to hide my participation in CyberPartisans even from the person close to me.
How much time per day does it take you to work in a cyber partisan group on average?
It varies, but usually about 10 hours a day, but really - until my eyes and head start to hurt like hell. Well, and the typical problems of life take you out of work like everyone else: illness, family and different problems...
Were there moments during these 3 years when you wanted to leave "The Storks"/ CyberPartisans and go back to normal life?
I didn't want to leave "The Storks" - somehow everything looked safer and more autonomous there.
At CyberPartisans, there are two reasons that constantly get on my nerves:
- safety;
- I do not what I would like to do in life, if I had the opportunity to do it.
On the second: I'm the kind of person who puts a comma in "break not build" after the second word. I'm terribly internally disgusted by the idea of destroying something. Even if it's a shitty and shoddy network, I still feel bad that I'm destroying the result of someone's work, even if it's of poor quality, even if it's illiterate and shoddy. But still someone did it, built it. And I only destroy it.
That is why I try to stick to projects where some useful "product" is produced, which is very likely to come in handy, including after the collapse of the regime. And it is good that the CyberPartisans have quite a few such projects.
About Defeating the Dictatorship
What would you like to do after the Victory? Have you thought about it?
Over the years, I have made a clear decision about what I will do for the rest of my life: before, after, instead of, or during the victory.
Fighting evil. Because if people don't fight evil, it grows very quickly and sooner or later will destroy the whole world. As long as there are non-humans ready to torture defenseless people, kill them with sledgehammers, cut off their heads for money or "ideas", I will try to inflict maximum damage to such creatures. As part of any capable group in any country, but of course, I would like it to be the Cyber Partisans and Belarus.
Do you think it will take us a long time to defeat the dictatorship in Belarus?
A long time. Because dictatorship is not in Drozdy.
Dictatorship is in people's heads. They are used to being "dictated" by someone, for example, a "correct" school curriculum.
People must first learn to take personal responsibility for every aspect of their lives. Including their health, the relevance of their profession, their pension savings, or the order in the lift and around the entrance.
And only after that it will be possible to get rid of dictatorship forever.
Yes, something similar on self-governance at the level of courtyards, we were just about to start in 2020. Too bad it was stifled. 🙁
I think it will come back very quickly once they stop killing for it.
By the way, in 2020, did you think that a peaceful protest could really defeat the dictatorship in Belarus?
I didn't really believe in it, but I didn't believe that there would be anything at all in the elections. I thought it would be like in 2015 🤣. And I turned out to be wrong.
I rather very much WANTED the peaceful protest to win. At that time, the second option through civil war was not acceptable to me at all.
And concerning the punishers, how long do you think Belarusians will remember their "merits" after the overthrow of the dictatorship? Will a just punishment await them, or will people turn the page quickly enough to live on in a peaceful country?
They will not forget. World War II ended almost 80 years ago and Nazi criminals are still being identified and even imprisoned.
I'm not expressing my opinion now, but what I see in people. Maybe they won't get revenge, but it is absolutely certain that everyone will get at least a lifetime (if not forever) page on the national resource Black Map, depending on the gravity of the offence. And the rest - the court. If you dare to raise your hand against a Belarusan, and especially against a Belarusan woman, you will answer to the full extent of the law. Sooner or later, but absolutely everyone will be brought to justice.