In protest of President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian troop movements through the country, Belarussian hacktivists have launched a ransomware attack against the railway systems. The Cyber-Partisans announced their attack on Twitter on Monday, along with a list of demands in exchange for the encryption keys. The attack has crippled the system and disrupted ticket sales, however automation and security systems were left unaffected in case of emergency situations.
The tweets read: “At the command of the terrorist Lukashenko, #Belarusian Railway allows the occupying troops to enter our land. We encrypted some of BR’s servers, databases and workstations to disrupt its operations. Automation and security systems were NOT affected to avoid emergency situations.”
The activists continued: “We have encryption keys, and we are ready to return Belarusian Railroad’s systems to normal mode. Our conditions: Release of the 50 political prisoners who are most in need of medical assistance. Preventing the presence of Russian troops on the territory of #Belarus.”
One of the group’s spokespeople, Yuliana Shemetovets confirmed that the goal of the attack was to disrupt the railway systems to “indirectly affect the Russian troops’ (potential attack on Ukraine.”
