Cybersecurity Policy Report, Lithuanian Data Breach Report Cites Human Error as Main Culprit, (Aug 5, 2025)

By Tony Foley

A report outlining data breaches during the first half of the year from the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate (VDAI) indicates that most data breaches during that period were caused by human error.

In a July 29 news release outlining the report’s findings, VDAI said it received 116 reports of personal data security breaches in the first half of 2025, affecting almost 170,000 data subjects. Of the breaches reported, 86% related to breaches of confidentiality, while 10% consisted of failure to make information available to data subjects.

Based on its analysis of the breach notifications received, VDAI said 57% of breaches resulted from human error, with 32% caused by cybersecurity incidents (including ransomware attacks), and 11% by IT system errors and other causes. VDAI noted that 81% of the data subjects impacted by reported breaches were affected because of cyber incidents, with the remaining 19% impacted by other reasons.

The news release concluded with a reminder from the VDAI that data controllers must notify the agency of a data breach within 72 hours. It also outlined several sanctions imposed against organizations over violations of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The report may be downloaded from the news release but is available only in Lithuanian.

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