DDoS Attacks Target Exiled Belarusian Media Outlets

Since March 2026, at least six exiled Belarusian news outlets and one journalists' association have been subjected to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks aimed at overwhelming their websites. The targeted sites, which include Zerkalo, Reform.news, and Nasha Niva, have been labeled 'extremist' by Belarusian authorities and are effectively banned from operating in Belarus. Staff reported that these attacks are part of a broader pattern of transnational repression linked to political coverage. Notably, the independent news portal Zerkalo had to implement additional verification steps due to the attacks, which included CAPTCHAs to confirm human visitors. A significant DDoS attack against Pozirk on May 9-10 involved over 14 billion requests from more than 31,000 IP addresses, causing a near-total outage despite mitigation efforts from Cloudflare. The ongoing crackdown on independent media follows the 2020 protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko's disputed re-election. As of now, the affected outlets continue to bolster their defenses against these persistent cyber threats.

Key Points: • Six exiled Belarusian media outlets have faced DDoS attacks since March 2026. • The attacks are believed to be linked to Belarusian authorities aiming to suppress political reporting. • A major attack on Pozirk involved over 14 billion requests, causing significant website outages.