The Norwegian Parliament (Storting) said yesterday that it had been the victim of a hacking attack targeting its internal email. Specifically, hackers gained access to the system and stole data related to parliamentary representatives and employees.
In a press release, the director of the Storting, Marianne Andreassen, said that hackers had breached the email accounts of elected representatives and employees, managing to steal a large amount of data. Andreassen added that the incident is currently being investigated by Norway's intelligence agency and, therefore, cannot determine who is behind the attack or the number of accounts that were compromised.
Additionally, the Norwegian Parliament has already begun notifying representatives and employees affected by the security incident. According to the country’s press, the Parliament’s IT team has shut down its email service to prevent hackers from revealing more data. Before this hacking attack, cyberattacks targeting Norway were rare and “far-fetched.”
- In January 2018, a hacking group stole healthcare data for over 50% of Norway's population, local press reports.
- In February 2019, cybersecurity firms Rapid7 and Recorded Future revealed that Chinese hackers breached Visma, a Norwegian company that provides cloud-based business software to European companies, and exploited this access to attack the company's customers.
- In May 2020, a group of internet fraudsters defrauded Norfund, Norway's sovereign wealth fund, with a BEC scam.
The Norwegian Parliament is working closely with the relevant security authorities to investigate the attack, while Andreassen noted that the incident was reported by the Storting administration to the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST). Andreassen also explained that the extent of the damage resulting from the attack is not currently known and there will be no comment on the motive or cause of the attack until the current investigation is complete, as reported by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
The communications director of the Norwegian Labour Party, Jarle Roheim Håkonsen, confirmed to NRK that both the workers and the Labour Party politicians have been affected by the attack. The Central Party also confirmed that its representatives and staff were affected during the breach of the Parliament.
Parliament is being assisted in investigating the attack by the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM) , a government cybersecurity agency responsible for coordinating the country's national computer emergency response team (NorCERT)
The spokesperson for NSM, Trond Øvstedal, said that the Authority contributed to incident response, analysis, and other measures during the incident that took place against the Parliament of Norway. NSM will also provide technical support to the Parliament of Norway during the investigation.
