Prosecutors assess alleged leak of Lithuanian conscripts’ data abroad

LRT, citing BNS, reported that the Young Market Participants Association has asked Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the alleged disclosure of conscripts’ personal data on third-country platforms. Prosecutors said they have not yet decided whether to open a pre-trial investigation.

The association said its open-source intelligence analysis found that data on 158,391 Lithuanian citizens may have been leaked. The information allegedly includes names, surnames, years of birth, conscription codes and details about the progress of their call-up.

According to the association, the analysis identified at least 218,000 data-processing violations. It said the first incident occurred in 2019, with further incidents recorded between 2023 and 2026.

Association head Ignas Plunksnis accused the authorities of failing to ensure the security of conscripts’ personal information and called for concrete action and accountability.

National Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said he did not want to comment while the situation was being assessed by law enforcement. He said he had no information so far confirming that conscripts’ data had been leaked to third-country platforms.

Kaunas said the case did not involve a hack or the public disclosure of data, adding that prosecutors would assess the information they had received.

The association said the Ministry of National Defence had told it that, because the law provides for the publication of the data, mass copying and storage by third parties did not in itself change the data’s public status or make it leaked.

The ministry said the Lithuanian Armed Forces would contact the operators of third-country platforms and demand the removal of the conscripts’ lists. The armed forces said they would provide information to the association within the 20-working-day period set by law.

The ministry has also decided to change how conscripts are informed. A working group has proposed ending the public conscripts’ list from January 2027 and allowing each person liable for military service to check their information individually.

Under the proposed system, users would identify themselves on the Lithuanian Armed Forces website, karys.lt, and enter their name, surname, date of birth and the last four digits of their personal identification number. Kaunas said there would no longer be one complete public list of conscripts.