● Covered by 3 sources · 3 reportsMedium impact3 negative
Large DDoS Attack Disrupts Norwegian Government Services for Over a Day
Key points
- Norwegian government services were disrupted by a DDoS attack.
- The attack targeted Digdir's IT partner, Vivicta, starting Monday.
- Services like ID-porten and health infrastructure were affected.
- The attack was two to three times larger than previous incidents.
- The attack started at 03:38 CEST on Monday.
- eSignering was also affected by the attack.
- Pro-Russian hacker group Server Killers claimed responsibility.
- The attack was ongoing for three days.
- The attack followed Norway's renewed security cooperation with Ukraine on August 23.
Norwegian Public Services Hit by DDoS Attack
Several Norwegian government services experienced disruption for more than a day due to a large-scale cyberattack. The Norwegian Digitalisation Agency (Digdir) reported that the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack began on Monday, targeting the infrastructure of its IT partner, Vivicta. DDoS attacks overwhelm servers with traffic, making them inaccessible to legitimate users.
Impact on Critical Digital Services
The incident affected 10 digital services, including those for identity verification, logging into public services, inter-agency data exchange, public records access, and employee access management. Notably, ID-porten, a digital identification service used by over 4.5 million people to access thousands of government services, was among the affected systems. The disruption also impacted parts of Norway's health infrastructure, as several health services rely on ID-porten for authentication, potentially affecting access to online pharmacies and electronic prescription systems.
Scale and Ongoing Efforts
Digdir stated it was collaborating with Vivicta to stabilize the affected systems, with some services gradually returning online. The attack persisted for approximately 30 hours with varying intensity and continued to affect some services as of Tuesday morning. Digdir's press officer, Are Kvistad, noted that this latest attack was two to three times larger than previous incidents, marking the third DDoS event affecting Digdir's services since June. Authorities confirmed that no sensitive information stored in the affected systems was compromised.
Updates
- Pro-Russian hacker group Server Killers claimed responsibility.
- The attack was ongoing for three days.
- The attack followed Norway's renewed security cooperation with Ukraine on August 23.
- The attack started at 03:38 CEST on Monday.
- eSignering was also affected by the attack.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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How outlets covered it
A pro-Russian hacker group, Server Killers, claimed responsibility for a three-day cyberattack against Norwegian government digital services, including a unified login system. The attack, described as the largest ever against Norway's Digitalization Agency, followed Norway's renewed security cooperation and financial aid commitments to Ukraine, indicating a potential retaliatory motive.
A large distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has disrupted Norway's shared government digital infrastructure since Monday, affecting services operated by the Norwegian Digitalization Agency (Digdir) and its provider, Vivicta. This disruption impacts public services like ID-porten and eSignering, causing partial inaccessibility and slow responses for users. The attack is significant as it targets critical national digital infrastructure, marking the third such incident for Digdir recently.
A large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted the infrastructure of Norway's Digitalisation Agency (Digdir), disrupting multiple public services for over 24 hours. This incident highlights the vulnerability of critical government digital infrastructure to cyberattacks and the potential for widespread disruption to citizen services.