[BreachExchange] Cyber-Attack on Norwegian Parliament

[Destry Winant]

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/cyberattack-on-norwegian/

A number of ministers have had their email accounts hacked in a
cyber-attack on Norway's parliament, the Storting.

The Norwegian parliament's director, Marianne Andreassen, confirmed
that threat actors had targeted the parliament last week.

"This has been a significant attack," Andreassen said.

Unauthorized individuals managed to gain access to the email accounts
of several elected members of parliament and also to some accounts
belonging to parliament employees.

Speaking at a press conference earlier today, Andreassen did not
specify how many accounts had been hacked but said that a "limited
number" of ministers and employees had been impacted by the incident.

Individuals whose accounts were exposed in the attack have been
informed, and a report has been filed with the Norwegian police.

A spokesman for Norway's main opposition party, the Labour Party, told
public broadcaster NRK that the attack had impacted several Labour
Party members and staff.

After the incident was discovered, the Norwegian National Security
Authority (NSA) was brought in to counter the attack and get to the
bottom of what had happened

"We have been involved for a few days," said NSA spokesman Trond
Oevstedal. "We are assisting parliament with analysis and technical
assistance."

Andreassen said that the parliament had discovered "anomalies a little
more than a week ago."

"A number of risk-reducing immediate measures were implemented to stop
the attack," said Andreassen. "These measures had an immediate
effect."

In a statement issued earlier today, the Storting said that the
attackers had made off with an unspecified amount of information.

It read: "Burglary has been registered in the email accounts of a
small number of parliamentary representatives and employees. Our
analyses show that different amounts of data have been downloaded."

No information has been released regarding what kind of cyber-attack
was perpetrated against the Norwegian parliament or who was
responsible for it.

"We don't know who's behind it," Andreassen told reporters.

"We take the matter very seriously, and we have full attention to
analyzing the situation to get an overall picture of the incident and
the potential extent of damage."

The website of the Storting, Norway's single-chamber parliament, was
functioning normally on Tuesday after news of the cyber-attack was
released.