Norway’s National Security Authority (NSM) published a statement warning that some of the country’s most important websites and online services became inaccessible due to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
It is believed that a criminal pro-Russian group is behind the attacks.
In DDoS attacks, internet servers will be overwhelmed by many requests, rendering the hosted sites and services inaccessible for legitimate visitors and users.
These attacks are common and constitute part of the ongoing cyber-warfare between pro-Russia and pro-Ukrainian hacktivists.
The Norwegian authorities report attacks against large companies that offer essential services to the population.
In NSM’s announcement, more details about the hackers and the services they targeted were not mentioned, but some of the targeted websites were found on the Telegram channel of ‘Legion – Cyber Spetsnaz RF.’
Legion recruits volunteers to help with attacks and is the same group that recently targeted Lithuania. Legion is believed to be affiliated with Killnet, another group that hit Romania, Italy, and many other countries with DDoS attacks in previous months.
According to the Russian hacktivists, some of the targeted Norwegian entities are Norway’s national police, the state’s public services portal, the NAV office site (immigration), the Altinn digital government document portal, and the UDI portal (immigration and traveling).
The reason for the latest wave of cyberattacks against Norway is for two reasons. First, Norway blocked the transit of 20 tonnes of goods from mainland Russia to the Svalbard island, destined for Russian miners living in the archipelago. Secondly, Norway donated long-range rocket artillery (MLRS) systems and 5,000 rounds of shells to Ukraine to help the country thwart the ongoing Russian invasion.
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