Calls for cyberattacks on Latvia spread in Russia

  • 2022-05-13
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Calls for cyberattacks on Latvia appeared on various social media sites in Russia on Thursday, Defense Ministry parliamentary secretary Baiba Blodniece (Development/For) said in an interview with TV3 channel Friday.

The ministry's representative said that some websites in Latvia were already targeted by Russian cyberattacks. Latvian information technology (IT) security incident prevention institution Cert.lv is on alert and ready to deal with the attacks but has urged public sector institutions and businesses to step up their defenses against cybersecurity incidents, she said.

Blodniece noted that cyberattacks against Latvia had intensified since Russia's invasion of Ukraine but that they became even worse after May 9 and 10 events in Riga. 

Cert.lv head Baiba Kaskina informed that Latvian state institutions had become a target of pro-Russia killnet hackers. Initially, they only directed their attacks against state institutions, but yesterday the hackers released a new list of around 100 targets including governmental, financial, transport and other institutions, as well as companies and even a fitness club.

In most cases, Latvian institutions come under distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.  So far, the most crippling attack has hit Latvia's non-governmental fundraising website ziedot.lv, but Kaskina promised that access to the website will be restored soon. 

The representative of the Defense Ministry said that on the whole the State Police coped with the situation on May 9 and 10 - public order was maintained and offenders were detained, although at times they had to deal with some really nasty displays of support for Russia's aggression.