A group of Belarusian hacktivists say they carried out a cyber-attack on the country’s national railway in an attempt to block the passage of Russian troops.
The group, calling itself the Belarusian Cyber-Partisans, said in a tweet that it had encrypted some servers, databases and other devices used for rail traffic in Belarus. The aim seems to be to hinder the movement of Russian troops through the country, which has been going on for several days.
According to the Belarusian Railways, some web resources are inaccessible, and it is also not possible to buy tickets online. In addition, the organization talks about ‘technical problems’.
The hacktivists are said to be Belarusian IT people who were organizing to overthrow authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. In the middle of last year, thousands of people took to the streets in the country after the elections, which the opposition saw as fake.
Lukashenko is an important ally for Russia, which has deployed a large force on the border with Ukraine in recent weeks. Troops are also being sent to the border between Ukraine and Belarus, officially to conduct joint exercises. The movements are often seen as a possible preparation for an invasion of Ukraine.
