<p>VILNIUS, Lithuania &mdash; Hacker groups linked to Russian intelligence conducted cyber-attacks against top Lithuanian officials and decision-makers last year and used the Baltic nation’s technology infrastructure as a base to hit targets elsewhere, a report by Lithuania’s intelligence service said Thursday. </p>
<p>The annual national security threat assessment report claimed that, among others, the Russian cyber-espionage group APT29 with alleged links to Russia’s intelligence services “exploited” Lithuania’s information technology infrastructure “to carry out attacks by APT29 against foreign entities developing a COVID-19 vaccine.” </p>
<p>The report produced by Lithuania’s State Security Department said the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in Lithuania, a NATO member that is Russia’s neighbor and a former Soviet republic, decreased Russian intelligence operations against the country in 2020 and shifted the Kremlin’s efforts to cyber-espionage.</p>
<p>“Nevertheless, Russian intelligence operations pose a major threat to Lithuania’s national security,” State Security Department head Darius Jauniskis told Lithuanian lawmakers as he presented the report at Seimas, the Parliament, on Thursday. </p>
<p>Jauniskis added that Moscow was using military and economic means and influencing by information “for the implementation of its political aims” in the Baltic nation of 2.8 million.</p>
<p>The report estimated that the overall threat of cyber and information attacks has increased in Lithuania as the number of cyber-attacks was continuing to grow annually. </p>
<p>Jauniskis accused Russia of trying to use the pandemic as a way to create havoc in Lithuania, which he said had witnessed “dozens” of such “failed attempts” recently. </p>
<p>“Those activities were well-coordinated and fueled by anti-Western propaganda coming out from the Kremlin,” Jauniskis said.</p>
<p>Similarly to its neighbors Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania’s relations to Russia have remained icy since the nation regained its independence amid the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. </p>
<p>Estonia’s foreign intelligence agency published its annual report last month saying that Russia is counting on the COVID-19 pandemic to weaken unity in the West, which would help Moscow gain a more prominent role in international affairs and allegedly lead to declining Western influence on the global stage.</p>