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Norway reports sharp rise in 'successful' cyberattacks

AFP
AFP - news@thelocal.no
Norway reports sharp rise in 'successful' cyberattacks
Norway's NSM cybersecurity agency said that the number of "successful" cyberattacks against organisations in the country had tripled in a year. Photo by Jake Walker on Unsplash
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Norway's NSM cybersecurity agency said on Tuesday that the number of "successful" cyberattacks against organisations in the country had tripled in a year, in its first public evaluation of such risks.

Its report follows warnings from several European countries alleging that Russia is behind a stepped-up campaign of hybrid warfare, including cyberattacks, in relation with the war in Ukraine.

The NSM -- the National Security Authority -- did not identify any actors behind the attacks.

"Over the past year, we have observed a tripling of the number of successful cyber operations against Norwegian organisations," NSM director Arne Christian Haugstøyl told a news conference.

"Several of them had serious consequences and continue to present a risk to national security," he said.

For instance, in spring a municipality in Oslo's suburbs, Lørenskog, had a large amount of data stolen and offered for sale on the dark web after a cyberattack.

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Artificial intelligence was providing perpetrators with a powerful new tool to carry out such operations, Haugstoyl said.

"The use of AI allows data to be exploited and misappropriated at a professional level, on a scale and in greater ways than before," he said.

The NSM has evaluated the level of cyber risk to the country at "heightened", ranked second on a five-point scale.

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