A group of Russian hackers attacked Lithuania: Does that mean Russia has attacked a NATO country

Under normal conditions, the meaning of this sentence would be frighteningly clear, but this is another significant attack: not a physical attack, but a cyber attack; and to understand what a cyberattack means is never easy, writes Sky News.

NATO member in question is Lithuania's Baltic State, a state targeted by Russian hackers Monday. According to hackers, the attack is still ongoing.

Transport and media websites have been hit, just like the websites of various state institutions such as Lithuanian tax services, which banned their operations yesterday.

A group of Russian hackers known as Killnet claimed responsibility for the attacks, stressing in Telegram that the attack was an answer to Lithuania's decision to ban the transfer of some goods to Kaliningrad's Russian territory in the Gulf of Blatic.

Politics in this situation are extremely complicated. Kaliningrad is controlled by Russia, but is not linked to Russia's main body -- it is a small part of Russia surrounded by NATO countries.

The Lithuanian government says it is only strengthening the European Union's sanctions on goods, but Russia has responded sharply, saying it is being barred from access to its sovereign territory.

Russia has promised to respond in a way that “would have serious negative impacts on Lithuania's” population. Then, just a few days later, this cyberattack came.

Does that mean Russia has attacked a NATO member? Not yet.

For starters, the group that claimed responsibility for the attack denies having any connection to the Russian state, saying “is not related to any legal order authority”.

The Russian government has long used third-class criminal groups to carry out cyber attacks, so it would not be a surprise if it was involved. The less, at least on the surface, her hands are clean.

Then there's the nature of the attack. Reports so far suggest it is an attack to deny services ( DDoS, an attack involving throwing too much website data until it is forced to fall offline.

The attack has been described as <x0mastive”, which is technically true because in order for an attack to work DDoS, the attack must be huge, but that doesn't mean it had a massive effect.

DDoS attacks are very present that many websites already have protection against them as standards.

Even if the attack is carried out, he does not steal information. It's an instrument for heavy shock, more or less. /Periscopi/