Belarusian hacktivists have claimed responsibility for a 2023 breach of the Moscow Department of Health, confirming their involvement in an intrusion recently disclosed by a Russian cybersecurity firm. The group, known as the Belarusian Cyber Partisans, stated on Friday that they infiltrated the network and obtained administrator-level access to its infrastructure, which included systems connected to other government agencies.
The Cyber Partisans asserted they maintained access for several months before discontinuing the operation, explaining that the network was not a priority. They claimed to have gained full access to the entire infrastructure relatively quickly and with minimal effort. A representative of the group also made an unverified claim of current access to hundreds of IT systems across Russia and Belarus.
This admission follows a report published last week by Solar, a Russian cybersecurity company and subsidiary of state-controlled telecom Rostelecom. Solar identified the Cyber Partisans as the likely perpetrators of a long-running intrusion into an unnamed Russian healthcare organization. Solar reported discovering the breach in December 2025 and traced the earliest signs of the intrusion to early 2024, suggesting the hackers might have been present in the network for nearly two years. The Cyber Partisans, however, stated their initial access was a year earlier, in 2023, and that they did not attempt to maintain it after achieving their objectives.
According to Solar's researchers, the targeted organization operated an extensive IT network linked to numerous other healthcare institutions, potentially allowing the attackers to access additional systems. The researchers confirmed that the hackers accessed sensitive medical information but did not destroy data or disrupt the organization's operations.
The Cyber Partisans did not disclose specific information obtained from the Moscow healthcare network, citing operational reasons, but indicated that medical data collected during cyber operations could assist in assessing Russian military casualties in the conflict in Ukraine. The group also stated that most of their current operations remain secret.
In their statement, the Cyber Partisans acknowledged responsibility for the hack and agreed with Solar's assessment that "No matter how hard the Russians try to defend their systems, the Cyber Partisans 'find and will continue to find ways around' their security measures."
The Cyber Partisans emerged following mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after the country's disputed 2020 presidential election. Since then, they have claimed responsibility for significant cyberattacks against Belarusian government institutions and the national railway system. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the group expanded its operations to include Russian targets, focusing on intelligence gathering and infrastructure disruption. In July, Russia's Supreme Court designated the Cyber Partisans an "extremist organization," accusing them of seeking to destabilize Russia and Belarus and overthrow Lukashenko's government. This marked the first such designation by Russia for a hacking group.
