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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 14:49

Lithuanian DefMin: software linked with Russia has spying gaps

BC, Vilnius, 14.08.2017.Print version
Lithuania's cyber security specialists are currently searching for a replacement of the unsafe software used by state institutions. Linked with Russia, the software leaves gaps that allow system hacking, Defense Vice-Minister Edvinas Kerza said, cites LETA/BNS.

"There have been cases of suspicious software. (…) We have observed means to connect, and when they connect, we can only guess what they do and how they control," Kerza told BNS.

 

He did not specify the state institutions in danger or the software behind the threat, however, said it was linked with Russia. In the vice-minister's words, the gaps were discovered before this year, the software has not yet been replaced, with only access to the systems restricted.

 

Earlier this week, three conservative MPs Laurynas Kasciunas, Zygimantas Pavilionis and Audronius Azubalis turned to the prime minister, asking to assess the scale of the use of the Russian software and information systems by state institutions and companies of strategic importance to national security.

 

The conservatives said that the Police Department had been using accounting system modules based on 1S:Company platform since 2006, adding that the software was banned after the Federal Security Service established that Russia had been using it for spying purposes.

 

Meanwhile, the state-run company Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), in their words, use the security system Klub-U developed by Russia's military industrial complex Izhevsk Radio Factory. The system has been installed in all locomotives as part of the modernization of the Lithuanian railway system. The conservative MPs said Klub-U uses Russian satellite navigation system GLONASS, which establishes locomotive coordinates and movement parameters, including coordinates and speed.

 

Kerza said specialists would still assess the safety of the systems.

 

Darius Adomaitis, director of the Cyber Security and Telecommunications Service, said the systems had not yet been analyzed, adding that a recommendation had been issued against using anti-virus software of Russian company Kaspersky.






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