Lithuanian central bank hit by cyber-attack

In a statement, the bank said that the denial-of-service attack -- in which many outside computers overload the target's IT system -- from a group of countries took place early Friday morning.

"Information technology specialists of the Bank of Lithuania countered the attack successfully and restored the access to Bank of Lithuania services from the servers operating in Lithuania," it said.

It remained impossible Friday afternoon to access the bank's website from abroad, however.

The bank said that the attacks were launched from computers apparently located in countries including Canada, China, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.

"The attack did not have any influence on the interbank payment systems operated by the Bank of Lithuania, the loan risk database, the bank’s internal information system, or the connection to other European central banks," it said.

No public claim of responsibility had been made for the attack so far.

It was not clear if it was linked to Lithuania's signature Thursday of a controversial international online anti-piracy accord.

Critics of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement warn that it could significantly curtail online freedom, and several governments have come under attack by groups including "hacktivist" grouping Anonymous.

(c) 2012 AFP