Cybercriminals gain access to classified information from NATO summit in Vilnius

Lithuanian intelligence services have discovered that social media are spreading reports of a «leak» of classified data about the NATO summit that took place in Vilnius the day before yesterday. The information concerned the protection of the leaders of NATO member states.

The spokeswoman for the Lithuanian State Security Department, Aurelia Vernickaitė, said that cybercriminals had managed to gain access to classified data on the organization of the summit. According to her, this includes information on the routes of delegations and personal data of state security.

A hacker group affiliated with the terrorist state, From Russia with Love, claimed responsibility for the incident, according to the Lithuanian portal 15 min. The country’s intelligence services have rated the hacker attack as the highest «unacceptable» level of threat. A total of 30 institutions and 346 «assets» located in Lithuania were inspected.

The leaked documents claim that the security of the NATO summit was guaranteed by a sniper group of the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose personal data was also made public. The names of those responsible for exchanging classified information with NATO intelligence services in Lithuania and for modeling possible threats to the security of the summit participants were leaked.

The alleged routes of NATO delegations in Vilnius were also published, including specific addresses to which motorcades of world politicians allegedly traveled.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels claimed that the data leak allegedly occurred in Ukraine. However, the international community reacted sarcastically — everyone is convinced that Russia is conducting another information propaganda campaign. According to Aurelia Vernicke, the hacker attack is being investigated in cooperation with the relevant authorities.