Security News > 2022 > June > Lithuania warns of rise in DDoS attacks against government sites
The National Cyber Security Center of Lithuania has issued a public warning about a steep increase in distributed denial of service attacks directed against public authorities in the country.
DDoS is a special type of cyberattack that causes internet servers to be overwhelmed by a large number of requests and garbage traffic, rendering the hosted sites and services inaccessible for legitimate visitors and users.
"The NCSC urges all managers of critical information infrastructure and state information resources to take additional security measures and to follow the NCSC recommendations for protection against service disruption attacks," advises the public notice.
The agency provided a link to a PDF containing extensive guidance on defending against all types of DDoS attacks used by threat actors today, so system administrators are advised to apply the recommended mitigations.
Russian hackers hit Lithuanian sites with DDoS attacks because the country's government imposed a limited goods transportation blockade between Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave as part of EU sanctions.
The Kremlin perceived this move as extraordinarily aggressive and illegal, and the hacktivists who support the Russian government were quick to orchestrate and launch cyberattacks against Lithuania.