Twelve Norwegian Government Ministries Suffers Crippling Cyberattack
The Norwegian government announced on Monday that 12 ministries had been the target of a cyberattack. The most recent target is the general public sector of the European Union’s major gas supplier and NATO’s arctic member.
Norwegian Government Investigates
The head of the government organization in charge of offering services to ministries Erik Hope stated that they noticed a vulnerability in a vendor’s platform. The telling sign of the intrusion was what he described as “unusual” traffic on one such platform. He also added that they noticed this trait on July 12 and police started investigating it.
Hope failed to comment on what ministries suffered the attacks and the impact it had on them. He also failed to answer questions about who the culprits were.
However, he said that the cyberattack did not affect the PM’s office as well as the foreign, defense, and justice ministries used different IT platforms.
Norway Suffers More Cyberattacks Than Usual
Following a decline in Russian gas exports, Norway is Western Europe’s top oil exporter and major gas supplier. The government sector is currently the target of cyberattacks. However, the notable one in June 2022 was dub a “criminal pro-Russian group” DDoS attack.
Norway, a NATO member, and Russia share an arctic border, and they provide financial and material support to Ukraine. The country’s cyber security agency states in its most recent risk assessment report in February that the number of cyberattacks rose between 2019 and 2021, with the number of significant incidents in 2022 remaining at the same level in 2021.
It’s highly uncommon to hear from a cyberattack victim in such a pragmatic, condensed manner, according to Brian Higgins, a security expert at Comparitec. “None of the typical ‘this was a sophisticated cyberattack’ or ‘we take our client’s security seriously’ crap. Just a sober evaluation of what happened.
Higgins states: “It is nice if a few more incident response teams adopt their approach.” He expresses confidence in the ability of the Norwegian authorities to keep things under control.
