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Lithuania opens cyber security center amid increasing threats

Xinhua, July 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The national cyber security center was opened in Lithuania on Tuesday to tame rising cyber threats in the Baltic State.

The institution aims to ensure that the country's cyber space protection at a national level is centralized, according to the Lithuanian defense ministry.

Security authorities said the need to establish such a center was highlighted by the changing security environment.

"Experience shows the number of cyber attacks in the country is increasing, while their effect on people's lives may grow even more," Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas was quoted as saying in a press release.

During the inauguration ceremony, Olekas pointed out that despite the opening of the national cyber security center no one should expect that cyber attacks would stop, reports Lithuanian ELTA news agency.

The cyber security center opened a week after the NATO's summit in Warsaw and "came at a particularly good time," according to Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius who attended the ceremony.

Data from Lithuania's communications regulatory authority shows that last year specialists had investigated more than 40,000 cyber incidents, or 15 percent more than in 2014.

Four months ago, Lithuanian parliament's website suffered a cyber attack and was inaccessible for foreign users. The website of Lithuanian foreign ministry was also hit. The parliament's speaker said it had been "probably the first attack on such scale."

This year, the websites of the president's office and the joint staff of the armed forces were also attacked.

Lithuania has stepped up its defense capabilities including cyber security amid geopolitical tensions in the Eastern Europe since the conflicts in the Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Endit