Bistel, acronym for ''Belgian Information System by Telephone'', was a Belgian equivalent of

Prestel Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maxim ...

and

Minitel The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France. The service ...

on a smaller scale, established in 1986 at the initiative of the then Prime Minister

Wilfried Martens Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens (; 19 April 1936 – 9 October 2013) was a Belgian politician who served as prime minister of Belgium from 1979 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1992. A member of the Flemish Christian People's Party, during his premiership ...

. It was a federal government service that gave access through

videotex Videotex (or interactive videotex) was one of the earliest implementations of an end-user information system. From the late 1970s to early 2010s, it was used to deliver information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typi ...

to Belga

telex The telex network is a station-to-station switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network, using telegraph-grade connecting circuits for two-way text-based messages. Telex was a major method of sending written messages electroni ...

news releases, to a press review, judicial databases JUSTEL and CREDOC, economical databases ECOTEL and BUDGETEX. In 1988, Bart Halewijck a former PM cabinet adviser and municipal councillor for the same CVP party in

Gistel Gistel () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. Following local government boundary reforms in 1971 and 1977, the municipality has comprised not only Gistel, but also the towns of Moere, Snaaskerke and ...

, used the passwords he had kept to view sensitive government informations and showed it to a friend, then to a journalist from

De Standaard ''De Standaard'' (meaning ''The Standard'' in English) is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Mediahuis (formerly Corelio and VUM). It was traditionally a Christian-Democratic paper, associated with the Christian-Democratic and F ...

to prove the security failures. This led to a judiciary "Bistel Case". In spite of recommendations, all passwords had not been changed every six months and many were still the same after two years. Halewijck and his friend, as there was then no specific penal provisions for such crimes, were charged for forgery and use of forgery, theft of energy with burglary, forgery by an official of a telegraphic despatch (an article of the Belgian Penal Code never used since 1911) and destruction of State property. The two first ever "Belgian

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

s" got only light penalties but the case showed the urgent need for a specific legislation.Joëlle Meskens,
Les pirates du Bistel s'en tirent bien: la farce n'était pas très méchante...
, ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

'', 9 November 1990

Sources

{{Telecommunications Communications in Belgium History of the Internet Videotex Information appliances Pre–World Wide Web online services 1986 establishments in Belgium