Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
said that to his knowledge the attack “has not caused any significant damage.”
The distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS)
attack targeted a secure national data network forcing the temporary suspension
of online services for several hours, the Norwegian National Security Authority
said.
A criminal pro-Russian group seems to be
behind the cyberattacks, NSM head Sofie Nystrøm said. She added that the attacks
“give the impression that we are a piece in the current political situation in
Europe.”
Norwegian media reported that the country's
ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Foreign Ministry Wednesday for a
complaint over Russian supplies being prevented from transiting via Norway to
an Arctic Russian coal-mining settlement.
The Barentsburg settlement is in the
Svalbard archipelago, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the
Norwegian mainland. The European Union has slapped sanctions on several Russian
goods due to the war in Ukraine. Norway is not a member of the EU but mirrors
its line on most topics. Under a 1920 treaty, Norway has sovereignty over the
Svalbard archipelago, but other signatory countries have rights to exploit its
natural resources.
Wednesday's cyberattack on Norway came two
days after a similar attack temporarily knocked out public and private websites
in Lithuania with a pro-Moscow hacker group reportedly claiming responsibility.
That incident came a week after Russian
officials threatened to retaliate because Lithuania restricted the transit of
steel and ferrous metals sanctioned by the EU through its territory to Russia's
exclave of Kaliningrad.
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