Russian Forces and Belarus Railway Get Disrupted: Pro-Democracy Hacktivist Group Claim the Ransomware Attack

Cyberattacks are currently being launched against the Russian Forces.

A hacktivist group claimed they have infected the Belarus Railway with a goal to delay the soldiers from exploiting the transportation system.

The hacktivists said they would provide the decryption key if the Belarus President promised to stop aiding the Russian troops.

Up to date, the Belarusian government did not officially acknowledge this cyberattack against their systems.

However, it released a railway notification for travelers on Monday, Jan. 24, about technical difficulties, which rendered the service temporarily unavailable, as per local news.

Many took this as a sign of a ransomware attack on the railway system.

Belarusian Railway Hacked: Hacktivist Group Demands

According to Arstechnica, a group called "Cyber Partisan" claimed the attack on Telegram.

They said they are a part of a cyber campaign called "Peklo," which has currently "encrypted the bulk of the servers, databases, and workstations of the (Belarus Railway) in order to slow down and disrupt the operation of the road."

They further claimed that "the backups have been destroyed."

The group also shared their demands on Twitter, where they accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of aiding Russian troops in their fight against Ukraine.

The hacktivists demanded the "release of the 50 political prisoners who are most in need of medical assistance" and "preventing the presence of Russian troops on the territory of Belarus."

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. https://t.co/QBf0vtcNbK
— Belarusian Cyber-Partisans (@cpartisans) January 24, 2022

The group also shared a bunch of images they claimed were compromised from the attack.

These photos featured files being corrupted an a few errors on the railway system.

As previously mentioned, the hacktivist offered a decryption key in exchange for their conditions. Ideally, a decryption key would help restore the railway system back to a fully-functional state.

Russian Forces Hacked 2022: Belarus Railway Status

Gizmodo said one of the first to spot the railway hack was Franak Viacorka, a journalist and political advisor.

He promptly tweeted the details of the cyberattack, together with the demands of the hacktivists.

Cyber-Partisans attacked the network of Belarusian Railways. They encrypted the servers, databases, & workstations to slow down the arrival of 🇷🇺 troops to Belarus. They demand the release of 50 polit. prisoners with hard health conditions, & stop the deployment of 🇷🇺 army. pic.twitter.com/9ImDVrpMan
— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) January 24, 2022

Viacorka told Gizmodo that he heard the details of the attack directly from "railroad workers." He also described this cyberattack as a "huge scale," big enough that an official acknowledgment might drop anytime this month.

However, be warned that this information is not enough to confirm the hacktivists' claims and their cyberattacks.

Gizmodo noted that the ongoing standoff in Ukraine between Russian and pro-NATO forces has gotten to a point where they could risk armed confrontation.

Over 100,000 Russian troops were spotted at Ukraine's borders, which led to American officials accusing Putin of plans for invasions.

The situation is still progressing, and it's hard to determine how it will end.

Affected residents who are interested in reliable information are advised to wait for more updates from the local government, which might come out sometime this week.