Hackers knock out Lithuanian government websites

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Hackers knock out Lithuanian government websites

Killnet has knocked out Lithuanian government sites with a major DDoS attack.

Self-styled pro-Russian hacking group Killnet took down numerous Lithuanian government and corporate websites with a major DDoS attack on Monday, two days after warnings to Vilnius that failure to unblock the railway and road corridor to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad would result in such an attack.

The hackers claimed they had attacked over 1,000 Lithuanian websites. The country's State Tax Inspectorate, the Integrated System of Administrative Services, the Central State Archive, the Lithuanian website of Swedish telecom Telia and the major accounting service provider B 1 were reported to be offline on Monday or experiencing difficulties. Lithuania's cybersecurity agency has seen an increase in DDoS attacks starting on Friday targeting government agencies, transportation services, and the financial sector.

The hackers had posted several videos to social media over the weekend warning the Lithuanian government it had 48 hours to remove the blockade against Kaliningrad or risk a strike at the heart of the Lithuanian system, affecting more than 500 companies. A Monday evening post to the Telegram group We Are Killnet vowed to continue the attack on Tuesday.

The same Telegram group shared a list of Lithuanian target websites, though it wasn't clear if it was a wishlist or if all the listed sites had been hacked at some point. Some were still accessible, while others were glitchy or unavailable. The hacking group reportedly encourages volunteers to join its DDoS attacks by listing the domains and IP addresses of targets in order to maximize damage.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda doubled down on Sunday, saying it was absolutely clear that Lithuania must and will implement EU sanctions in a Facebook post ruling out the possibility of corridors or appeasement of Russia. Lithuania and the EU insist that Vilnius is acting according to the demands of the bloc, rather than imposing a national-level decision.

Moscow has ordered the blockade lifted, calling it a violation of international law and warning that the ban on the transit of sanctioned goods will have a negative impact on the people of Lithuania. Kaliningrad is part of Russia, Lithuania and Poland and the rest of the country, so the only open route left is by sea.

In March, Killnet posed as a friend to Russia and attacked the websites of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the neo-Nazi militia group Right Sector and the hacking collective Anonymous, which had just declared cyber-war on Moscow.