Ruks said the State Police (VP) immediately informed kindergartens that these were low-level threats and there was no need for evacuations at the facilities.
Emails were received around 1 at night.
Ruks said it was important to detain the perpetrator or perpetrators as soon as possible at this time, so it would not be appropriate to detail what the VP has so far managed to disclose about the email sender or senders.
“It needs to be understood that this is not a simple criminal without specific IT expertise that would be easy to find,” Ruks said, explaining that police are also working with international partners.
The important thing right now is for the public to realize that the threat and terrorism level in the country is not rising, Ruks emphasized.
Ruks did not confirm whether these threat emails come from any countries that are not friendly to Latvia, but pointed out that if this is confirmed, it will not be easy to get to the criminals.
The police chief called on kindergarten management under no circumstances to panic and to inform police of receiving threats.
As previously established, the e-mails were in Russian, sent from different e-mail and IP addresses.
Officials of the State Police Cybercrime Combating Administration have commenced criminal proceedings after Section 231.1 of the Criminal Law regarding deliberately false notification regarding the insertion or placement of explosive, poisonous, radioactive, or bacteriological substances or materials or explosive devices.
About 300 schools across Latvia received emails on Tuesday, October 10 about possible security risks. Assessing the information, the State Police said residents had no grounds for alarm and the threat level was described as low.
The State Security Service (VDD) also stated that the terrorism threat level in Latvia remains low and the information at the disposal of VDD does not indicate that this could change in the near future. Despite this, evacuations took place in several schools in Latvia and studies were discontinued.
