Belarusian State University

History

2023: Hacking IT systems and stealing 3 TB of data

In early July 2023, it became known that the information infrastructure of the Belarusian State University (BSU) was subjected to a powerful cyber attack. As a result of the invasion, the computer systems of the university were turned off, and attackers stole a large amount of information from the servers.

BSU is the leading higher educational institution in Belarus, located in Minsk. The complex includes two dozen faculties and educational institutes, retraining and advanced training institutions, research institutes and research centers, various laboratories and unitary enterprises, educational and experimental stations, etc.

Hacked the largest state university in Belarus. 3 TB of data stolen, files from servers destroyed

It is said that the attack on the BSU was carried out by the cybercriminal group "Cyberpartisans." This is a decentralized team of anonymous hacker activists that appeared in September 2020. The group gained fame for a number of successful cyber attacks on the resources of Belarusian law enforcement agencies and government agencies.

The Cyberpartisans said they tried to access BSU systems for more than two months and finally succeeded in this task. It is said to steal approximately 3 TB of information. Moreover, the files stored on the servers were destroyed. Moreover, the attackers disabled the domain controllers responsible for managing user authentication and network security. It is also reported that some of the stored data has been encrypted.

It took us a while to break into the net and gain a foothold there. Our goal was to inflict maximum damage so that the BSU could not recover for a long time, the cybercriminals say.

The university denies any cyber attack and explains the downtime of the system with technical problems. Officials also said the photos and screenshots shared by the hackers were fake. However, when trying to visit the site of an educational institution, an error "502 Bad Gateway" is issued^[1]

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