Lithuania expresses unwavering support and solidarity with the U.S. in the wake of the statement the United States issued on April 15 on the destabilizing actions, cyber and disinformation operations carried out by Russia, including the malicious cyber activity through compromising SolarWinds supply chain that U.S. services attribute to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
“We stand in solidarity with the United States and we condemn the destructive Russia’s actions in both, cyber and physical space. In the light of the events of earlier and recent weeks we can see that Russia resists respecting the norms of a responsible state behavior and is inclined to risk international security and stability instead,” said Vice Minister of National Defence Margiris Abukevičius.
Even though the cyber activity against SolarWinds mostly hit U.S. institutions and companies, the malicious campaign also reached European, including Lithuanian, private and public sectors. The Lithuanian National Cyber Security Centre carried out the assessment of the impact caused by the SolarWinds cyber-incident back in January. Approx. 10 organisations are using SolarWinds software in Lithuania, however, no negative effects on their activities or data have been identified because the organisations observed isolation recommendations or were using not vulnerable products.
The numbers of detected malicious cyber activities against information and communication technology (ICT) products and services, the security and integrity of ICT supply chain, have been increasing. Such cyber campaigns as against the SolarWinds supply chain can have systemic effects and harm democratic societies, security and economies significantly.
Image: MoD archive
The U.S, statement: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/15/fact-sheet-imposing-costs-for-harmful-foreign-activities-by-the-russian-government/
The NATO statement: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_183168.htm
