President notes lack of govt input to cyber security

“It is crucial that we invest in cyber security. There is a high degree of uncertainty when one institution or another does not know, which of them is responsible, and in the end we often see, amid the growing threat of cyber security attacks, that the coordinating hand of the government is lacking,” Grybauskaitė told journalists after the meeting.

In spring of 2016, the country came under a cyber attack, which experts defined as one of the biggest in the history of independent Lithuania. As the governmental server of the Information Society Development Committee guarded by the Infostruktura state-run company was subjected to the attack at the end of April, impact was felt by information systems of a dozen of state institutions, including websites of the parliament, the President’s Office, the government, the majority of ministries and other institutions, such as the State Tax Inspectorate, the Central Project Management Agency, etc.

In the report of threats, the State Security Department has said that cyber hackers linked with Russia, including Russian intelligence and security services, were the biggest threat to national security.

The president said she agreed with the government that the country’s spending to national defense should be 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.

Grybauskaitė noted the need for transparent use of the money.

“We will have to invest and one of the tasks for the government will be to step up the transparency of the processes of the use of the money for defense,” said the president.