Russia launches cyberattack on Lithuanian infrastructure

Lithuania has suffered a series of cyberattacks from Russia. Major enterprises and some government agencies were under attack, LRT reports. 

Avia Solutions Group (ASG), a provider of aviation capacity solutions for passenger and cargo airlines worldwide, announced that on May 30, its offices across Europe were hit by large-scale cyberattacks and the group’s website and those of several of its companies were affected.  

ASG's Head of the Group’s Technology, Infrastructure and Development Department, Romas Butkevičius, said that the destabilization attempts trace back to Russia.

“When we were looking into the circumstances, it became clear that the attacks came from Russia. We know that other companies, mainly state-owned, have also come under such attacks,” he said.

Linas Agro, the Lithuanian agribusiness company, was also hit by a DDoS attack. They were detected on Monday therefore the company's website has been down for about a day.

The Lithuanian National Cyber Security Centre confirmed the DDoS attacks increase.

Earlier this April, the European Commission agreed to counter growing cybersecurity threats. To this end, the process of establishing the so-called "European Cyber Shield" was initiated. The association is expected to consist of security operations centers (SOCs) located in the allied countries.

The organization's function are to detect cyber threats and respond to them promptly using advanced technologies, in particular artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis.

These institutions are expected to become fully operational in the first quarter of 2024. As part of the preparatory stage, three consortia of cross-border security operations centers (SOCs) have been selected, bringing together public bodies from 17 Member States and Iceland.

This project is expected to cost the European Union €1.1 billion, most of which will be financed by the EU through the Digital Europe program.

Such measures have become obviously necessary after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and against the backdrop of Russia's increasingly aggressive intentions and actions against EU member states.