Lithuania uncovers major data breach in property registry after citizen inquiry

A large-scale data breach at Lithuania’s Centre of Registers (RC) was exposed only after a citizen questioned why the Migration Department was reviewing their property records, Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič said on Friday.

Speaking to journalists in parliament, Kondratovič revealed that the breach came to light in late February when the RC received its first formal inquiry from an individual whose data had been accessed without authorisation. The citizen had been alerted that their assets were under scrutiny by the Migration Department, which typically conducts such checks for residency permits or ID issuance.

“Every month we receive questions about why the Migration Department or the IT and Communications Department is running checks on people—whether for permits, ID codes, or other reasons,” the minister explained. “This time, the person asked why they were being checked, and we responded. That query, dated February 18–20, led us to discover that a department employee was unaware someone else was using their RC login credentials.”

An internal investigation confirmed in late March that the accessed data had not been retrieved by the authorised employee but by an unidentified third party. All Migration Department accounts were immediately locked, passwords reset, and the incident reported to the National Cyber Security Centre and the State Data Protection Inspectorate.

According to Kondratovič, the credentials of two Migration Department employees were compromised, though investigators found no evidence the staff had maliciously shared their access. “So far, there’s no indication this was done intentionally—no such facts have emerged,” he stated. No employees have been suspended or dismissed as a result.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is now probing the unauthorised access, which involved over 600,000 property registry entries—including personal identification numbers—retrieved from abroad using hijacked Migration Department accounts. The breaches reportedly occurred early this year and were detected in early April.

Among those affected are President Gitanas Nausėda, Armed Forces Commander Raimundas Vaikšnoras, several ministers, lawmakers, and business figures. The scandal prompted the resignation of RC director Adrijus Jusas.