Lithuania suspects foreign state in 600,000-record data leak

Lithuanian authorities are on high alert after a massive data leak involving more than 600,000 entries from national registers, a breach the government believes was carried out by a foreign country. The Lithuanian General Prosecutors Office announced the leak was primarily from registers of real estate and legal entities, accessed using login credentials belonging to institutions authorized to receive the data.

The head of the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, Adrijus Jusas, resigned on Monday following the breach. Prosecutors said authorities immediately implemented additional cybersecurity measures, including blocking the accounts of suspected data users and restricting access with a requirement to update credentials.

The prosecutors office stated that a foreign country is suspected of involvement but did not specify which nation. Opposition politician Laurynas Kasčiūnas wrote on social media on Sunday that the data theft is thought to be a Russian intelligence operation, though he offered no evidence for the claim. He warned that addresses of intelligence officers, military personnel, diplomats, or politicians may have been accessed, which could allow the perpetrators to...