Report implicates Belarus in anti-NATO cyber campaign

By FRANK BAJAK
AP Technology Writer

BOSTON (AP) — Cybersecurity experts say they have evidence of direct involvement by Belarus’ government in a hybrid hacking/disinformation campaign against Eastern European NATO members since 2016. The campaign has aimed to sow discord in the military alliance, steal confidential information and spy on dissidents. Russia has been widely suspected of being behind the campaign and Tuesday’s report by the prominent U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant fingered Belarus for the first time as an apparent accomplice. The main targets of the hacking and disinformation campaign have been Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, NATO members on the alliance’s tense eastern edge, as well as Ukraine, which has been in a low-level military conflict with Russia-backed separatists since 2014.