The Czech Visapoint system was under a barrage of criticism throughout its existence
Since 2009, to apply for a long-term Czech visa, an applicant had to independently book an appointment at the consulate through Visapoint. However, doing so in many countries, including Russia, Ukraine, or Vietnam, was practically impossible. All available slots in the electronic queue were taken by "intermediaries," who then sold them for large sums.
Among foreigners, talk about the suspicious operation of the system had been going on for a long time. Many applicants accused consular staff of corruption and collusion with intermediaries. Others saw the reason in the unwillingness of Czech authorities to accept migrants from "unwanted countries."
Former Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Lubomír Zaorálek claimed that the cause was simply the overload of Visapoint and that there was no criminal activity. Eventually, in November 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs abandoned the criticized system and switched consulates to booking by phone and email.
Now it has turned out that for at least a year, hackers had free access to Visapoint. They themselves selected the desired appointment time and entered the applicant's name. According to the newspaper, the perpetrators earned tens of millions of euros from this.
Officers of the Czech counterintelligence (BIS) helped the police uncover the crime. As a result, law enforcement officers detained eight people on September 18. How many of them are Russian citizens is not specified. Investigators also froze hundreds of millions of crowns in the criminals' accounts.
"All detainees have been officially charged with illegal access to computer systems and information media. Four of them are also charged with money laundering," said prosecutor Petra Ulrichová.
The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the fact of the hackers' detention but declined to comment in the interests of the investigation. BIS employees did the same. They are currently investigating whether the Visapoint hack is linked to hacker attacks on the Ministry's servers in January 2017.
In turn, reports Vinegret.cz, an unnamed source in the department told the publication that foreigners hacked Visapoint on their own, without the help of ministry employees.