Cyber Incident Victim: Adviser of the President of Lithuania
Date:
Feb 2014
Location:
Lithuania
Summary
Anonymous Ukraine compromised the email account of a Lithuanian Presidential Adviser, exfiltrating and publicly leaking confidential correspondence. The group claimed the data revealed Western nations' financial control over Ukrainian political figure Vitali Klitschko through Lithuanian intermediaries, sharing download links to the stolen emails as evidence. The breach was part of #OpIndependence, an operation promoting Ukrainian sovereignty, with attackers identifying themselves as national patriots seeking accountability.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On February 13, 2014, the hacker collective Anonymous Ukraine publicly claimed responsibility for compromising the email account of Laurynas Jonavicius, an adviser to the President of Lithuania. The group announced the breach through a Pastebin statement accompanied by multiple file-sharing links containing stolen correspondence. Attackers exfiltrated all emails sent to Jonavicius’s account, including communications with Ukrainian political figure Vitali Klitschko. The leaked data was distributed across four platforms—MediaFire, FileFactory, 4shared, and SendSpace—with separate archives for Klitschko’s letters and Jonavicius’s full email repository. Anonymous Ukraine asserted the correspondence revealed evidence of Western nations directing financial support to Klitschko through Lithuanian government intermediaries, though they provided no additional documentation beyond the raw email archives. The group framed the operation under the hashtag #OpIndependence, emphasizing their objective to promote a “unified and independent” Ukraine while issuing characteristic warnings: “We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. Expect Us.”
The incident exposed sensitive diplomatic communications between a senior Lithuanian presidential adviser and a prominent Ukrainian opposition leader during a period of heightened geopolitical tensions. By publishing the adviser’s complete email history alongside targeted Klitschko correspondence, attackers amplified the operational impact beyond selective document disclosure. Anonymous Ukraine’s statement explicitly linked the breach to allegations of foreign political interference, though the provided data archives contained no supplementary analysis to contextualize these claims. The group reinforced their nationalist motivations by self-identifying as “Patriots of our country” and included additional Pastebin URLs suggesting planned continuation of #OpIndependence activities. No statements from affected parties—the Lithuanian presidency, Klitschko, or intermediary entities—were referenced in the source material regarding containment measures, forensic investigations, or public responses to the data exposure. The operation relied exclusively on unauthorized access to a single email account to obtain and disseminate its materials across widely accessible file-hosting services.