Belarus actively used communication intelligence against Lithuanian soldiers and State Border Guard Service officers protecting the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.
"According to the available information, their mobile communications metadata was intercepted and later used for influence operations," the SSD states in its traditional annual national threat assessment produced in cooperation with the country's military intelligence, the Second Investigation Department under the Ministry of National Defense.
"In addition, information from social media networks was used for identifying Lithuanian officers working at the border zone with Belarus in order to send threatening messages from fake accounts to them," the report reads.
Lithuania beefed up the protection of its border with Belarus last year by deploying hundreds of extra border guards and troops after a spike in the number of irregular migrants trying to enter the country from Belarus.
Over 4,000 illegal migrants, mostly Iraqis, entered Lithuania from Belarus last year. Lithuania accused the Minsk regime of organizing migrant flows, calling it a hybrid attack.
Belarusian intelligence also collects information on infrastructure important to Lithuanian national security, Lithuanian border area, border security systems and border vulnerabilities in general, the national threat assessment report states.
"Such information is likely used not only to direct illegal migrants but also for Belarusian and Russian military planning," it states.
Lithuania is not a target
More than a dozen individuals suspected of links to terrorism tried to enter Lithuania from Belarus, using the illegal migration route facilitated by the Minsk regime, the report states. Some of them concealed their ties with terrorist or extremist organizations; some were identified as having acquired military experience in paramilitary groups.
"For the vast majority of migrants, who illegally crossed the border from Belarus, Lithuania was a transit country on their way to reach Western Europe. Despite the increased illegal migration flows, Lithuania is unlikely to become a major target for Islamist terrorist organizations," the report states.
"Nevertheless, in case Belarus continues to organize the illegal migration flow from conflict regions to Europe’s eastern borders, it is likely that members of terrorist or extremist organizations will try to use it more actively; therefore the risk of possible terrorist use of transit route through Lithuania would increase," it says.
Published on Friday, the intelligence's national threat assessment report includes data collected until the start of February and, therefore, it does not look into the military and geopolitical implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the current security situation.