Mindaugas Sėjūnas, the head of the Public Information Security Agency, which analyses the war launched by Russia in Ukraine, said on Thursday that Navys' mobile phone may have been monitored before it was hacked.
Attempt stopped
Egidijus Papečkys, a military expert, told the news portal lrytas.lt that he noticed the hackers' attempt to hack into his account on Wednesday evening.
"They tried to access my e-mail and Facebook. However, I have a two-step confirmation, and I saw that it was an unauthorised login attempt. If they had succeeded, they would have tried to change the password," said Mr Papečkys.
The military expert is convinced that such attempts to take over accounts are linked to the war in Ukraine, which has been commented on, and that this attack is coordinated with Navys.
"Everyone needs to observe online security hygiene and remember that there is no sensitive information on Facebook - all correspondence can very quickly end up in the hands of malicious people. Social networks are not a safe way to communicate", he stressed.
Well-coordinated international hacking
Meanwhile, the account of Navys, an expert on warfare, was hacked on Wednesday evening and posted video material related to terrorist crimes and child pornography.
According to Navys' colleague M. Sėjūnas, Facebook and its representatives in Lithuania were immediately contacted.
"It turned out that Facebook itself is unable, or rather incapable, of removing the information posted on its platform. They promised to remove it within 6-8 hours. However, as we can see, even this morning, the information could not be removed", he wrote on Facebook.
On Wednesday evening, the Lithuanian police launched an investigation.
"According to preliminary data, Aurimas' mobile phone was first hacked, the data on the equipment was scanned, and then the computer was hacked in synchrony.
The mobile phone data may have been scanned by tracking the person, accessing him through a perimeter.
The hacking and hijacking of Navys's account may have also led to the hacking of Facebook's servers, which prevented administrators from removing and blocking the information until this morning," explained Sėjūnas.
He noted that Facebook has algorithms that automatically block information and images related to incitement to racial and national hatred, violence and images promoting sex.
"The inability to remove this information from the Facebook account indicates that the cyber attack was and still is being carried out by a very serious team," he wrote.
According to initial reports, the US Cybersecurity Agency has also launched an investigation.
"This is believed to be a well-coordinated, international hack by Russian special services to undermine our Public Information Security Agency and Facebook.
The content of the information that has been and/or is being posted by terrorists on Mr Navys' account is criminal.
Any media outlet, any TV channel, if it were to be 'hacked', would have to be held responsible for the violent or pornographic content of the information that was broadcast", he stressed.
However, Sėjūnas urged not to be annoyed with Facebook administrators, as the social network's technicians may be trying to identify the servers from which the hacking is being carried out, and the delay could be the reason for this unprecedented attack.
"While we assess the enemy's technological and intellectual abilities, we find that on a mental level, they are just plain dumb bastards. Half-wits working for the Russian special services believe that hacking an account and loading it with naked butts will seriously damage the reputation of the individual and the organisation. (...)
This cyber-attack shows that human-like individuals severely hamper our activities in Lubyanka and that our surveys hit the mark, revealing the occupiers' real plans, intentions and goals", he wrote.
Around noon, Sėjūnas informed that Navys' account had been restored.
"Thanks to the efforts of the Lithuanian Criminal Police for Property Crimes and Facebook, the account of Aurimas Navys has been taken over, the situation has been brought under control and is now under control. The account will be active in three days.
This large-scale international cyber-attack is the greatest reward for our work," he wrote on Facebook.
Police have launched an investigation
Ramūnas Matonis, the spokesman for the Police Department, confirmed that the police have opened a pre-trial investigation into the hacker attack on the Facebook account of retired Colonel Navys.
"A pre-trial investigation has been opened at the Vilnius District Chief Police Commissariat," he told Elta on Thursday.
According to him, the pre-trial investigation has been opened on the grounds of illegal access to the information system and on the disposal of pornographic content.
The Criminal Code (CC) stipulates that anyone who illegally accesses an information system or part of it in violation of the information system's security measures is punishable by public works or a fine or by arrest or imprisonment for up to two years.
Another Article of the CC, on the basis of which a pre-trial investigation has also been opened, provides that whoever produces, acquires, possesses, possesses, displays, advertises, offers or distributes pornographic material depicting a child or a person represented as a child, or, by means of information and communication technologies or other means, obtains or provides access to pornographic material depicting a child or a person represented as a child, is liable to a fine or to imprisonment of up to four years.
