A cyberattack on Russia has reportedly targeted Russia’s digital military draft system. According to Grigory Sverdlin, head of the draft-dodging nonprofit Idite Lesom, anonymous hackers successfully breached a key developer of the system on Thursday. “For the next few months, the system, which holds 30 million records, will not be able to send people off to kill or die,” Sverdlin wrote on Facebook.
He added that his organization had received a large set of documents from the hackers, including source code, technical documentation, and internal communications from Russia’s software provider Micord, a central developer of the digital military draft system.
Cyberattack on Russia’s Digital Military Draft System
Micord’s website was reportedly inaccessible on Thursday, displaying a notice that it was under “technical maintenance.” Meanwhile, the investigative outlet IStories, which obtained the documents from Idite Lesom, confirmed the breach with Micord’s director, Ramil Gabdrahmanov.
“Listen, it could happen to anyone. Many are being attacked right now,” Gabdrahmanov said. He declined to confirm whether Micord had worked on Russia’s unified military registration database, stating, “We work on many different projects.” Nonetheless, IStories independently verified Micord’s involvement in the digital registry.
Despite the cyberattack on Russia’s digital military draft system, some users reported that the database website was still accessible, though it remained unclear whether electronic draft summonses had been disrupted. The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed the claims of a breach as “fake news,” asserting that the registry continued to operate normally.
“The registry has been repeatedly subjected to hacking attacks. They have all been successfully repelled,” the ministry said, emphasizing that attempts to disrupt the system had so far “failed to achieve their objectives”, reported IStories.
Digital Military Draft System: Modernizing Russia’s Draft Process
The digital military draft system, part of a broader modernization of Russia’s wartime enlistment process, centralizes records of men aged 18 to 30 and allows authorities to issue summonses online, eliminating the need for in-person notifications.
The system has faced multiple delays, with its initial launch scheduled for November 2024. Russia’s fall 2025 draft, which runs from October 1 to December 31, was expected to rely on this digital registry in four regions, including Moscow.
Sverdlin noted that once fully operational, the online system automatically enforces restrictions on draftees who fail to report for compulsory service, including travel bans.
Origins and Government Plans for the Unified Registry
The hacker group reportedly remained in Micord’s system for several months, accessing critical infrastructure, operational correspondence, and the source code, which they claimed to have destroyed. The documents were shared with journalists at IStories, who confirmed their authenticity.
The Russian government first announced plans for a unified digital military registration registry in April 2023, when the State Duma passed a bill creating the system. RT Labs, a Rostelecom subsidiary, was initially named as one of the developers.
In February 2024, Rostelecom was designated as the sole contractor to complete the system for the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media, with a completion deadline of December 31, 2024. Though initially intended for the 2024 fall draft, the registry became fully operational only in October 2025, with several regions adopting electronic summonses and phasing out paper notifications.
