Washington sent its cyber forces to Lithuania to help defend against threats from Russia, a US army general said on Wednesday.
“Our deployment in Lithuania was directly related to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine,” Major General Joe Hartman, commander of the US cyber force, told reporters.
The mission involved specialists arriving at a country following its invitations, “where they scan networks with the goal of building the host countries’ resilience and share any new information about threats with government and private industry circles back in the US”, according to the Bloomberg news website.
The mission in Lithuania “was moved up in the queue” due to the threat posed by Russia, according to Hartman.
The United States has previously deployed its cyber teams to countries including Estonia and Ukraine.
The deployment to Kyiv was extended amid the looming threat of a full-scale war with Russia. The specialists were pulled back in February once Moscow’s invasion plans became clear.
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