Daily losses from Belarus internet shutdown estimated at $56m

Economic activity lost due to the internet shutdown in Belarus was estimated at more than $56m a day, according to local media citing NetBlocks.

$56,401,874 in economic losses for 1 day of internet shutdown in Belarus (per NetBlocks’ cost estimate)

Well, Belarus is a wealthy country pic.twitter.com/03w587bbcD

— Чай з варэннем (@belteanews) August 11, 2020

These losses are linked to outages affecting banks, car-sharing services, online shops and other services.

According to The Bell, mass outages in Belarus lasted 61 hours. In that case losses could reach $141m.

80% of internet traffic was knocked out at the IPv6 protocol level, something only two state-owned providers could accomplish, according to the Qrator Labs service. They are Beltelecom and the National Centre for Traffic Exchange (NCTE).

What is happening with the BY internet segment in terms of BGP and IPv4/IPv6: https://t.co/prAd9MdqRi pic.twitter.com/J5e4alzGlp

— Qrator Labs (@Qrator_Labs) August 11, 2020

The graph below shows spikes in Belarusian network traffic, as recorded by Cloudflare.

What the recent Internet shutdown in Belarus looked like to @Cloudflare. These graphs show traffic for the major networks in Belarus and their varied shutdowns. pic.twitter.com/Qiaw5NRXZ9

— John Graham-Cumming (@jgrahamc) August 12, 2020

Only Telegram managed to break through the blocks relatively successfully. To bypass the blocks, users used the Psiphon service. Read more about this service at the link.

Всем бы таких соседей

Psiphon: https://t.co/KUpwltjsvF pic.twitter.com/V6FCCxTMK0

— Internet Protection Society (@safe_runet) August 13, 2020

Experts, polled earlier by ForkLog, say that deep packet inspection (DPI) technology was involved, despite the president’s claim of foreign interference. What or whom he meant remains unclear.

DDoS attacks or isolation of the national segment: what is happening with the internet in Belarus

Earlier, more than 500 Belarusian IT-industry representatives urged authorities to stop violence against citizens.

“We are not experts in politics, but we are experts in the tech business. The country is creating conditions in which the tech industry cannot function. Startups are not born in an atmosphere of fear and violence. Startups are born in an atmosphere of freedom and openness,” the letter says.

For how Belarusian crypto exchanges fared under the shutdown, see the link.

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