Norwegian parliament targeted by computer attack

The Norwegian Parliament was the victim of a computer attack.

Hackers attacked Norway's parliament. The attack is believed to have taken place last month. According to information on the cyberattack leaked by the authorities, cyber criminals apparently had access to the emails of several MPs and parliamentary staff, particularly in the lower house. As far as the number of people affected by the incident is concerned, no official points have been issued.

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It was following the statement of the Labour Party's communications officer, Jarle Roheim, that an update was made on the computer attack. It can be remembered from this press release that several persons affiliated with the Labour Party are politicians or even ordinary employees who are among those affected by the incident. To this end, Fredric Holen Bjornl, an elected member of the Labour Party, during a broadcast on a private generalist television channel, believes that the government must initiate a thorough review of the computer system leaving parliament. He will also mention that "an institution as central as the Storting must withstand such attacks." He added: "I expect a full inspection."

It was early last week that the intrusion was observed. From the observation of the incident, the authorities of the parliament demanded that the measures be taken immediately so that not only stop the computer attack, but also find out who are the cause of this problem.

Immediately the administration of the capital immediately informed the members Storting the only chamber of the Norwegian parliament. After informing them an official publication finally highlighted the problem in a press release issued on September 1.

Marianne Andreassen, the first head of the parliamentary administration, makes no secret of the fact that she is very concerned about this situation. Interview on the issue she said that "this is a major attack"." However, she wanted to reassure all parliamentarians that all means are being used to allow not only to limit the damage but to discover the culprits behind this incident while trying to repair the damage, and this as soon as possible.

She mentioned that the administration of parliament has already undertaken to assess the extent of the cyberattack.But the analyses already undertaken have confirmed that the hackers behind the cyberattack did steal some information from MPs. "Our analyses show that varying amounts of data have been downloaded," the parliament administration said in a statement. According to Marianne Andreassen, "anomalies were detected just over a week ago."

Norway's parliament then contacted the National Cyber Security Agency, the NSMt. The agency then lends a hand to the National Assembly to resolve the problem. Trond Oevstedal, a spokesman for the NSMt, confirmed that the authority is doing everything possible in the analyses.

In addition, the Norwegian National Assembly files a complaint with the police security agency. It will be responsible for conducting its own investigation into the problem. To avoid further computer attacks of this kind, the Storting aims to strengthen its computer security system.

It should be noted that in an annual report published last February, on the assessments of cyber threats, the Norwegian domestic intelligence services, the PST had alerted all the country's institutions against cyber attacks which they believe could constitute "a persistent and long-term threat to Norway (…) By ignoring borders and without warning, a hostile actor can cause serious damage to Norwegian businesses and infrastructure. ». It's stable, they say, sensitive data that may be "stolen or manipulated" and critical infrastructure disrupted or destroyed."

This type of cyberattack is not really new in the industry. Although the news does not often talk about it, the fact remains that political institutions like parliaments are also often targeted by cyberattacks. The interest is palpable for hackers. The information they may be of interest to more than one. That's why cybersecurity doesn't just have to be something that seems to be of much more interest to private structures.

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