Hackers attacked computer services of the Norwegian parliament

Hackers attacked the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), as a result of which unknown persons gained access to e-mails of some MPs and members of the legislature. This is said in a statement published on the website of the kingdom’s parliament.

According to the Stortinget Administrative Head Marianne Andreassen, “a number of immediate measures were taken to stop the attack.” An assessment of the damage caused is currently underway.

“We take this case very seriously and pay full attention to analyzing the situation to get an overall picture of the incident and the potential damage. It is too early to talk about a general assessment of the damage caused, but the current analysis showed that a significant part of the working documents were opened”, — says the head of the IT department of the parliament, Marianne Andreassen.

Also Marianne Andreassen emphasizes that the hacker attack was eventually stopped by means of electronic protection.

“A number of immediate risk mitigation measures were taken to stop the attack. These measures had an immediate effect. We must continually work with IT security teams to get a complete picture of the threats. In addition, in the Storting considered new measures to strengthen security, which will work in parliament on a permanent basis”, – reported Marianne Andreassen.

According to the available information, the attack continued for several days. We only know that the affected staff and members of the Storting are already notified of the incident.

According to Twitter, specialists from the Norwegian Police and Intelligence Service are taking part in the investigation of the incident.

“PST is aware of an IT attack on the Storting. As soon as the PST receives the report, we will assess if there is a reason to initiate an investigation”, — says the Norwegian police (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste, PST).

In 2018, the Norwegian security police suspected hackers working for foreign intelligence services in hacking into the computer network of the regional health department in early January this year, reports to the Norwegian State Broadcasting Company (NRK). The department did not specify whether the attackers managed to gain access to data on the health status of citizens of the country or other confidential information.

We also recall that during the analysis of one of hackers ’attacks, experts discovered traces of multiply Chinese government cyberoperations, while the Iranian APT group invades government networks with malware via vulnerability in Outlook.