The state-owned railway firm temporarily shut down its web services and online sales of tickets.

State-owned Belarusian Railway has experienced a breach in its computer systems, disrupting the online sale of tickets.

The company stated that it had temporarily shut down its web services and online ticket sales owing to ‘technical reasons’.

Authorities did not comment on details of the cyber breach.

Belarusian Cyber-Partisans, a Belarusian opposition hacker group, has claimed responsibility for the attack on the national railway.

In a tweet, the hacker group claimed that they had broken into some of the state railway firm’s computer systems, including servers, databases and workstations.

The cyberattack is a part of the activist group’s efforts to disrupt the movement of Russian troops into the country.

Yuliana Shemetovets, who claimed to be a Cyber-Partisans group spokesperson, told Reuters that the cyberattack seemed to have impacted the country’s rail freight.

Although the move was aimed to prevent movement of Russian troops into the country, it was too early to say that the cyberattack had succeeded, Shemetovets said.

Recent days have seen Russian military hardware and forces moving into Belarus for planned joint military exercises scheduled in February.

The exercises, however, are expected to fuel further tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Shemetovets was quoted by Associated Press as saying that the cyber breach disrupted schedules of some trains and the hackers were working to fix the problem.

“The intention was not to impact any passengers,” she added.

The hacker group initially broke into the country’s railway network in December.

Although it breached into the signaling and control system, the group decided not to meddle for safety purpose, Shemetovets added.

In February 2021, the railway operators of Belarus and Russia signed a cooperation agreement on rail traffic and the railway infrastructure usage.

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