Askhat Niyazov

Affiliated media: YouTube channel Obozhayu, Journalist

Incident date: January 12, 2024

Attack type:

• Pressure on a media worker via non-physical pressure on relatives and loved ones

Who attacked: Unknown sources

Source: Adil Soz

Location: Kazakhstan, Astana, Astana

Additional information:

On January 12, the WhatsApp accounts of the journalist Askhat Niyazov (author of the project Obozhayu), his colleague (the host of the column Ministers) Nazymgul Kumyspayeva, his parents, and his wife were hacked. In addition, his father’s email account receives spam every minute. «At night, I received a message that someone is asking for a password to log into my WhatsApp account. I didn’t send that password to anyone, I tried to log into the app and realised that I couldn’t log into it anymore. WhatsApp blocked my number citing security. Five minutes later, my wife called me, then my colleague Nazymgul, with whom we work at the channel, called me. After that, I started texting to my parents, and they told me that their numbers too had been blocked by WhatsApp», — Niyazov said.