Lithuanian Parliament’s website came under attack in the run-up for the World Congress of Crimean Tatars on Monday, possibly aimed at preventing foreign users from observing the community's global gathering online.
Lithuanian Parliament’s website came under attack in the run-up for the World Congress of Crimean Tatars on Monday, possibly aimed at preventing foreign users from observing the community's global gathering online.
Lithuanian Parliament’s (Seimas) office confirmed on Monday that its website cannot be reached by foreign users due to a cyber-attack.
It had been subjected to a DDOS attack, when the attack source is more than one, often thousands of, unique IP addresses, making the service unstable or, in worse cases, unavailable.
The Seimas website has been blocked since the weekend. On Monday, the Parliament was hosting a meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars and an international conference on Mass Violations of Human Rights in the occupied Crimea. The Seimas is broadcasting the event on YouTube.
Officials of the Lithuanian Parliament said it would notify foreign users about alternative channels of broadcast of the Monday's event. In Lithuania, the event will be broadcast as usual.
The National Cyber Security Centre under the Ministry of National Defence said the attack came from around the world and if there was a statement to the police, the Centre would start identifying the country.
SHOTLIST
Parliament website
Vs of Crimea Tatars conference
Sound bite (Lithuanian)
LORETA GRAUŽINIENĖ, Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament:
Our website was closed on Sunday and we have taken all adequate measures to stop that process, our specialists have worked during the weekend. At first, it was not clear whether it was a breakdown, or an attack, but at the moment it is clear that it was a cyber-attack against Parliament.
Sound bite (Lithuanian)
LORETA GRAUŽINIENĖ, Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament:
It is obvious that the attack was aimed at preventing of spreading the information broadly in the world, as the topic is very relevant – Crimean Tatars issues, human rights violations.
Vs from Crimea Tatars conference
Sound bite (Russian)
