The Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) said on Tuesday that it fell victim to a cyber-attack that targeted its internal email system.
The hackers stole different amounts data from each account, as per the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament). Reuters first reported the development.
The full extent of the damage is currently not known, Storting’s director Marianne Andreassen said. As per the Reuters report, the perpetrators of the attack and what data was extracted is not known. Andreassen said that immediate measures were taken to stop the attack and they had “an immediate effect”. The parliament’s IT staff shut down its email service to prevent hackers from stealing more data, ZDNet reported citing local press.
All members of the Parliament and employees who were affected by the attack — the number of which is not known — have been contacted and the Parliament’s administration will follow up with them in the coming days, as per the press release. Reuters reported that several members and staff of Norway’s main opposition Labour Party had been affected, citing a party spokesperson who told this to the public broadcaster NRK.
Storting did not disclose when the attack was first discovered but said that the administration reported the matter to the police on September 1 and has had close contact with “relevant security authorities” about this. The Norwegian National Security Authority (NSA), which heads all IT-related matters of national security including the country’s CERT, has reportedly been involved in “assisting parliament with analysis and technical assistance” for a few days.
After the disclosure by the Storting, Norway’s Police Security Service (PST), which is the country’s intelligence service, tweeted that it was aware of the cyberattack and would assess the “need for an investigation” after receiving the report.
