Cyber attackers target Norwegian government websites

The Norwegian government has said that cyber attackers have targeted 12 of its departments recently. An official investigation has been opened and the country's data protection agency has been notified of these attacks.

Hackers exploited weakness

Government authorities told the media that they saw unusual traffic on one of the supplier's platforms.

Erik Hope, who is in-charge of providing the services to Norwegian ministries said, "We identified a weakness in the platform of one of our suppliers. That weakness has now been shut."

Hope told a news conference that he detected "unusual traffic" on the supplier's platform but declined to give any details. The attack was discovered on July 12 and investigations are underway.

Websites of the Prime Minister's Office, defence, foreign and justice departments weren't attacked because they use a different IT platform, Hope said.

He also declined to say who could be behind these attacks or whether Russia encouraged the attackers. 

"We have uncovered a previously unknown vulnerability in the software of one of our suppliers," said Hope to reporters.

Work going on as usual

Norwegian authorities told reporters that the government's work was going on as usual. However,  in the 12 ministries affected by the attacks, workers were unable to access basic services such as email on their mobile phones.

Norway is one of the largest suppliers of gas and oil in Europe. It is a member of NATO and supports Ukraine.

According to India Today, the north European nation has been hit by several cyber attacks, including one that occurred in June 2022.This attack was blamed on a pro-Russia group.

A website security analyst says the number of cyber attacks in Norway have tripled between 2019 and 2021. However, there has been a very little change in the cyber attack numbers from 2021 to 2022.

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