Lithuania Faces Cyberattack, Russia's Killnet Claims Hack of Sites in Retaliation for Transit Ban

Lithuania had begun to see signs of a cyberattack as early as June 21, according to country's deputy Defence Minister Margiris Abukevicius.

By Reuters | Updated: 27 June 2022 22:55 IST

Lithuania Faces Cyberattack, Russia's Killnet Claims Hack of Sites in Retaliation for Transit Ban

A Russian Security Council spokesperson promised retaliation over blocked shipments

Highlights

Lithuania's tax authority said in a statement all data was safe
Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for the cyberattack
Lithuania had begun to see signs of an attack as early as June 21

Lithuanian state and private institutions were hit by a denial-of-service cyberattack on Monday, the Baltic country's National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement released by the defence ministry.

"It is very likely that attacks of similar or greater intensity will continue in the coming days, especially in the transportation, energy and financial sectors," the centre said.

Lithuania's tax authority said in a statement it had halted all activities due to an unusually large number of attempts to connect to its systems, although all data was safe.

Spain Warns of Possible Cyberattack at NATO Summit Without Naming Culprit

"The main targets are state institutions, transport institutions, media websites," deputy Defence Minister Margiris Abukevicius said, in another sign of deteriorating relations between Baltic NATO country Lithuania and neighbouring Russia because of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Soon after, Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberattack on Lithuania, saying it was in response to Vilnius's decision to block the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

"The attack will continue until Lithuania lifts the blockade," a spokesperson for the Killnet group told Reuters. "We have demolished 1652 web resources. And that's just so far."

Cybersecurity Threats Are Biggest Risk to National Security: Cyber Experts

Kaliningrad is connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through Lithuania, a member of the EU and NATO.

Kaliningrad is sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania and supplied by rail via Lithuanian territory.

Lithuania had begun to see signs of an attack as early as June 21, Abukevicius said.

Microsoft Accuses Russian Spies of Targeting Ukraine's Allies Including US

A Russian Security Council spokesperson on June 22 promised retaliation over the blocked shipments, stating that these would have "a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania".

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last week Lithuania "only applies the European Union sanctions" in ceasing transport of certain goods to Kaliningrad, and has not taken any unilateral decisions.

Is Poco F4 5G a new best-of contender under Rs. 30,000? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.