Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said hostile foreign states are likely responsible for a massive breach involving hundreds of thousands of records stolen from the country’s state data systems.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Nausėda described the incident as a serious attack against Lithuanian state infrastructure and warned that the operation appeared too sophisticated to be the work of ordinary cybercriminals. The president did not directly name a country behind the attack but said the investigation points toward hostile foreign actors targeting Lithuania.
The breach involves unauthorized access to national databases managed by Lithuania’s Centre of Registers, a state-owned organization responsible for handling property records, legal entity information, and other critical government data. Authorities previously confirmed that more than 600,000 records may have been exposed.
Lithuanian prosecutors said attackers gained access using credentials assigned to institutions authorized to retrieve government data. Investigators are currently examining whether the credentials were stolen, abused internally, or compromised through phishing or other intrusion techniques.
Nausėda said the incident demonstrates the growing cybersecurity pressure facing Lithuania and other Baltic states following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lithuanian officials have repeatedly warned about increasing hybrid warfare operations targeting regional infrastructure, telecommunications systems, and government institutions.
The president also criticized weaknesses within state cybersecurity coordination and stressed the need for stronger protection of national information systems. He said the breach exposed vulnerabilities that must be addressed immediately to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The scale of the breach led to the resignation of the Centre of Registers director, Adrijus Jusas, earlier this week. Lithuanian authorities confirmed that suspicious accounts connected to the incident were blocked and additional restrictions were implemented across affected systems.
Former Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas previously warned that the leaked information could potentially include data tied to military personnel, intelligence officers, diplomats, and politicians, though officials have not publicly confirmed the exact categories of compromised records.
The investigation is being coordinated by the Lithuanian criminal police together with intelligence agencies and multiple government ministries. Officials said forensic analysis of affected systems remains ongoing.