(VG): The Russian hacker group Killnet has announced that it will carry out a hacker attack against Norway, they report on Telegram.
They posted a photo of Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt with what looks like a Maleficent mask, from the Disney movie of the same name. Along with the image, they publish the text:
– Hello Norway! Everyone ready to attack!
“Ms. Error”, they call the Norwegian Foreign Minister.
As of Wednesday morning, BankID and the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority website are down. The BankID website only says “The service is not available”, i.e. the services are not available. There is also instability in Altinn.
– Some users may experience instability in Altinn. We are working to fix it, writes Altinn on its website.
dagger discussed the matter first.
HACKED: This is what the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority website looked like on Wednesday morning.
Photo: Screenshot of the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority website
Threats Jens Stoltenberg and his family
The hacker group threatens both NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and his family in a Telegram message, writes NTB which refers to Dagbladet.
Killnet is a well-known pro-Russian actor who was behind a number of computer attacks in support of the invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this summer, the band wrote:
“I forgot to introduce you to our enemy number 1 – Jens Stoltenberg. This devil will respond with life to a Russian soldier. And also his family, grandchildren and supporters will respond. ”
Killnet claims on Telegram to have a copy of Jens Stoltenberg’s passport. Dagbladet writes that they reviewed the photo the group posted, but the social security number does not match the NATO Secretary General’s listing in the national registry.
VG has been in contact with the National Security Authority, which writes the following in an email:
– We know the case and have nothing to add at the moment, adviser Herman Hatløy Ringstad writes to VG.
Arbeidstilsynet makes the following statement to VG:
– The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority website is unavailable on Wednesday morning due to hacking attacks. Arbeidstilsynet is working to protect and delimit the attack, writes Vigdis Johnsen, director of the IT and administration department, in an e-mail.
– Massive traffic is sent to websites
Hege Steinsland, head of communications at Bank ID and Bank Accept, confirms that the company was attacked.
– We discovered attacks on our website on Bank ID.no. Massive traffic is sent to websites to make them inaccessible. It becomes a stopper so as not to enter. It’s the information pages, thankfully, not the bank ID service, Steinsland tells VG.
– We have increased the preparation. This can be an attack on many institutions in Norway.
– What are you doing to regain control of the situation?
– We have contacts with the website operator provider. They are doing what they can to stabilize the website again. Otherwise, it is to increase the readiness of bank identification services. Since this is an information page, it is not precarious.
Altinn and the ID door knocked
Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells VG that they don’t have any info on that yet.
Altinn communications manager Jørgen Ferkingstad told VG they had measures in place to limit the effect of the attack.
– I confirm that there is a hacker attack on Altinn and the ID gate, which started the night before Wednesday, around 2 o’clock, he told VG.
This does not mean that anyone has access to customer data, because it is a so-called denial of service attack, which means that hackers create so much traffic to websites that they can break down, according to Ferkingstad.
According to NTB, the hacker group writes on their websites that they will attack the Police, UDI, BankID, Difi ID Gate, Nav and several other Norwegian websites and online services.
They also allegedly used a photo of Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt on the social network Telegram. The photo shows Huitfeldt wearing a mask from the Disney movie “Maleficent.”
CYBER CENTER: Norway’s National Cyber Center – NorCERT’s operations center in Oslo. It is the operational part of the National Security Authority (NSM) that manages serious computer attacks against socially critical infrastructure and information.
Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
National Security Authority earlier this year asked Norwegian companies to be vigilant.
A cyber expert then estimated that a computer attack could be used as revenge from Russia, if Norway imposes sanctions on the country. The national security authority came out in February and asked companies to have a low threshold for notifying authorities of suspicious conditions.
– If Norway makes strong statements or measures against Russia, it will be possible to expect a retaliatory cyberattack, UiO information security professor Audun Jøsang told VG.
See also the latest news on Russia:
Used as revenge
After the Russian forces invaded Ukraine, several countries have announced severe sanctions against Russia. The EU, US, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan and Australia are among the countries that have introduce penalties.
– It can be assumed that a cyberattack could be directed against countries that provoke Russia or actively intervene to help the adversary against the invasion, Jøsang later told VG.
He went on to say that cyberattacks today act as a kind of revenge in global politics.
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