Bistel, acronym for Belgian Information System by Telephone, was a Belgian service using the Videotex protocol, established in 1986 at the initiative of the then Prime Minister Wilfried Martens.
It was a federal government service that gave access through videotex to Belga telex 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, used the passwords he had kept to view sensitive government informations and showed it to a friend, then to a journalist from De Standaard to prove the security failures.
In spite of recommendations, all passwords had not been changed every six months and many were still the same after two years.
[1] The two first ever "Belgian hackers" got only light penalties but the case showed the urgent need for a specific legislation.