Norway’s government has reported that twelve of its ministries have fallen victim to a cyber-attack.
At a press conference, Erik Hope, the head of the government agency responsible for providing services to ministries, revealed that the cyber-attack was traced back to a vulnerability in one of the government’s suppliers.
However, the minister reassured the public that the weakness had been addressed promptly. Hope also said the attack detection was made possible by monitoring unusual traffic on the supplier’s platform.
Despite ongoing investigations by the police since the discovery, the minister did not divulge specific details about the incident. He emphasized that it was too early to ascertain the responsible party and the full extent of the attack’s impact.
At the same time, Hope clarified that some critical entities within the government, including the Prime Minister’s office, as well as the foreign, defense and justice ministries, were not affected. These ministries operate on a different IT platform, which acted as a protective measure.
Norway’s state sector has experienced cyber-threats before. In 2021, groups with ties to China targeted the Norwegian Parliament’s email systems. The following year, the pro-Russian hacker group known as Killnet launched a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against Norwegian public service websites.
Source: Inforsecurity Magazine