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People’s reaction is lightning fast
“According to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania 2021. July 21 Resolution No. 565 will be created for a camp of illegal immigrants in Alytus, Kelmė, Prienai, Radviliškis and Telšiai at the beginning of August,” the false report states.
In addition, the authors of the disinformation assured that the campsites would be created in school buildings. “The students will be transferred to other schools. The parents (guardians, caregivers) of the students should contact the municipal administrations on these issues ”, explain the authors of the lie.
Mayor of the municipality of Prienai, Alvydas Vaicekauskas for the portal lrytas.lt He said he was unaware of the false information on the site until population troubles swamped him.
“It was a cyber attack when a lie was posted on our site. They were not visible on the website, but others started to react, even from the Radviliškis municipality they called me and asked what information we had disseminated.
We started searching, refining, and only found it when they sent the link they received. There are errors in the text, if you look closely. When we saw that our progymnasium was also mentioned in the text, it became clear that we already know from our institutions that there are no plans to house any refugees here. And then it is obvious that it is a forgery designed to intimidate people, ”said the mayor.
A. Vaicekauskas said that people’s reaction to liars was very fast: people called and wrote messages.
“When they asked us what we came up with, ‘Where will you help our children?'” There was a scare, but we quickly spread the word and shut down the site. It seems that this information has not been disseminated further, ”he said.
Although false information about the Alytus, Kelmė, Prienai, Radviliškis and Telšiai schools was spread, the lie was only published on the Prienai municipality website.
The mayor said the municipality plans to review all security settings on the site. “The site is old, redesigned, but apparently done incorrectly,” he said.
The results can be more painful
Professor of the VU TSPMI, specialist in information wars Nerijus Maliukevičius lrytas.lt stated that we have been able to observe active and complex attacks for several years, not only in Lithuania, but also in Poland and Latvia.
“Initially directed against our NATO partners, we are now looking at a broader range of issues and targets. The attacks exploit our internal tensions and emotional pains.
Some time ago, disinformation attacks were reported with reports of a coronavirus allegedly spread by NATO troops. In this case, I would say that it is very natural to try to take advantage of the migration crisis organized by the Lukashenko regime in our information space ”, evaluated N. Malukevičius.
The information warfare specialist said the purpose of such attacks was to try to escalate the crisis that is being resolved, increase tensions and enrage society.
“It just came to our attention then. First, to test our capabilities, our cybersecurity capabilities, our line of defense. Finally, when there is a real case and the crisis is even greater, use it for even more aggressive campaigns.” explained N. Malukevičius.
“I would say it is a major challenge. Now we can observe such local tests of our defense, but if the attack itself is much bigger, more massive, more complex, then the results can be much more painful for us,” he added.
