The spy software, dubbed ResidentBat, was ‘previously unknown,’ a media watchdog says

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo / Pool, AFP

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders today said it had discovered new software used by the security services in Belarus that spies on journalists.

The existence of the spy software, dubbed “ResidentBat”, was “previously unknown” and was discovered this year in the mobile phone of a journalist who had to unlock and give it to Belarusian KGB agents during an interrogation.

Unlike other surveillance tools that can infect phones remotely, such as Israel’s Pegasus software, ResidentBat has to be installed manually on the device.

Once installed, it allows access to phone calls, recordings, screengrabs, texts and messages from encrypted apps, as well as locally saved files, RSF said.

“By deploying surveillance technologies such as ResidentBat, the Belarusian state is pursuing a deliberate strategy of repression against independent journalism,” said RSF’s head of advocacy and assistance, Antoine Bernard.

For security reasons, RSF did not release the identity of the journalist who was taken in for KGB questioning.

Antivirus software flagged suspicious components on the device several days later, prompting them to contact IT specialists at a digital security NGO, which conducted a forensic analysis.

Data recovered indicated that the software was first used on the telephone during the journalist’s interrogation.

Investigators also concluded that ResidentBat was likely to have been used by the Belarusian KGB since at least March 2021 but it was not yet clear who made the software.

President Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for more than 30 years and crushed all opposition.

According to RSF, independent journalism is “heavily repressed” in Belarus, with journalists facing censorship, intimidation, violence and arbitrary detention.

Around 30 journalists are currently in jail in the country -- one of the highest numbers in the world.

“There seems to be a growing trend in surveillance of civil society,” the RSF report said, calling for an international ban on the technology.

In September, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab discovered that FlexiSPY spy software had been installed on the phones of two Kenyan filmmakers after their arrest in May.

In December last year, Amnesty International also accused the Serbian authorities of having installed the NoviSpy spy software on phones used by journalists and activists.

-Agence France-Presse