The Norwegian government has reported that its ICT platform used by 12 ministries has suffered a cyberattack after hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in third-party software.
In Norway, this platform is used by twelve ministries, except for the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Erik Hope, the head of the government agency responsible for providing services to ministries, revealed that the cyber-attack was traced back to a vulnerability in one of the government’s suppliers.
The hackers breached the ICT platform through a zero-day vulnerability in Ivanti’s Endpoint Manager Mobile (EPMM) solution to breach a software platform used by the government. According to NSM, this vulnerability was unique, and was discovered for the very first time in Norway.
However, the public has been reassured that the flaw had been addressed promptly and it will not necessitate a halt in work activities.
The Norwegian Security and Service Organization (DSS) informed the National Security Authority (NSM) when the cyberattack was discovered and engaged the police for conducting investigation regarding the incident.
They have also notified the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, indicating that the hackers might have accessed or exfiltrated sensitive data from the ICT system, leading to a data breach.
The agency has implemented additional security measures like restricting remote access via mobile devices for ministry employees to DSS’s ICT platform.
The Norwegian National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has notified all known MobileIron Core customers in Norway about the existence of a security update to address this actively exploited zero-day bug (tracked as CVE-2023-35078).
The NCSC also recommends these system owners to install security updates to block incoming attacks as soon as possible.
Comments