A Belarusian hacker group, which calls itself Cyber Partisans, claims it has successfully launched a ransomware attack on Belarus’s state-run railway network in an attempt to hinder Russian military activity in Belarus.
The group, which claims its ultimate goal is to topple Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, threatened to destroy all the network data of Belarusian railways if its conditions were not met. The group posted its demands, for the removal of Russian troops in Belarus and the release of Belarusian political prisoners on its Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/cpartisans
Screenshot from Twitter page of Belarusian Cyber-Partisans
The ransomware attack comes as Russia continues sending troops to Belarus for joint military exercises due to begin in mid February, amid heightened fears of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Belarusian government has so far not made a statement about the attack on its railway computer network, and it is not clear whether trains carrying Russian soldiers and military equipment would be affected.
The Cyber Partisans, which has over two dozen members, was formed in 2020, in the wake of the disputed re-election of Lukashenko.
Last year they hacked and released a massive trove of government data, including secret police files and personal information on top government officials.
Last week, another Belarusian cyber espionage group called UNC1151, which was accused by Ukrainian security officials of having links to Russian intelligence, hacked Ukraine’s government websites, which were defaced with provocative messages aimed at the Ukrainian state.
Experts from Microsoft said an investigation they conducted on the attack found that it was an attempt to plant malware in the Ukrainian state computer networks, from “an unknown actor”.
