Revenge hacker charged in Belarus

A man has been charged with gaining illicit access to a former girlfriend’s dating website entry in Belarus and could now face between 3 and 10 years in prison according to reports in Belarusian media. The 27-year-old telecom engineer from Grodno, western Belarus, broke into the account following the break-up of their relationship, changed the password and accessed private information.

The incident took place in January this year, when the former girlfriend saw her dating site account frozen by administrators following a mass mailing of her private message exchanges to other users. The woman then lodged an official complaint to her district police station, which redirected the case to the regional police unit dealing with crimes in the hi-tech sphere.

The investigation did not take long, as the victim pointed out the probable culprit to the authorities, who carried out a search on the suspect’s work computer and found enough evidence to charge him with “computer sabotage”. If the court in Grodno finds the man guilty, he could face between 3 and 10 years in jail for his actions.