Norway's National Security Authority says successful attacks on Norwegian organisations have trebled in half a year, with defence and space firms most exposed, and warns that AI is speeding up the hunt for vulnerabilities.
Norway's National Security Authority (NSM) said on Tuesday 27 October that the number of "successful" cyberattacks targeting Norwegian organisations has trebled over the past six months. The finding comes from a new report in which the agency made public an assessment it says it has not released before. NSM director Arne Christian Haugstøyl said the authority chose to go public because it is "absolutely necessary" to strengthen both the resilience of Norwegian organisations and their ability to handle cyber operations.
According to the report, as relayed by Euronews, the country's defence industry and space sector are particularly exposed to cyber risk, as are critical infrastructure and the service providers of organisations that matter for national security. The NSM said some businesses and organisations are increasingly being subjected to reconnaissance, ransomware and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The agency did not point to a specific actor. The report follows growing warnings across Europe about suspected Russian hybrid attacks, and Norwegian media reported in August that a Russian hacker group had declared war on Norway and claimed a DDoS attack on government digital services; the NSM report itself did not attribute the rise to any group.
The agency also described artificial intelligence as a "serious risk" for Norwegian businesses and organisations. "AI analyzes large amounts of data and identifies vulnerabilities faster than humans have been able to," Haugstøyl said, adding that this opens new opportunities for attacks at a faster pace and on a larger scale. In his words, the risk is rising and the speed at which security measures are put in place must increase. The coverage available does not give absolute attack numbers or explain how the NSM defines a "successful" attack, so the size of the increase should be read with that caveat.
