After Russian hackers paralyzed numerous companies in Lithuania, Norway is now reporting an attack by a pro-Russian group. There have been repeated attacks in the past 24 hours. The hackers used a particularly aggressive technique.
In Norway, numerous private and state institutions have become the target of a hacker attack. “A criminal, pro-Russian group seems to be behind the attacks,” said the Norwegian security agency NSM. There have been repeated attacks in the past 24 hours. “We’ve recently seen similar attacks in other countries,” said NSM Director Sofie Nystrom.
On Monday there was a cyber attack on state and private companies in Lithuania. The action was in retaliation for the dispute with Lithuania over the transit ban for certain goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
“Lithuanian state institutions and companies are exposed to severe DDoS attacks,” the Defense Ministry said on Twitter on Monday. Lithuanian officials said the worst attacks were quickly brought under control. According to Skardinskas, there was no serious damage. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said such attacks had increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in late February.
The government in Moscow openly threatened Lithuania over the weekend over restrictions on rail transport between Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave. The Russian hacker group Killnet, which had attacked government websites in the USA, Poland and Germany in the past, said it was behind the attack in Lithuania and explicitly referred to the situation in Kaliningrad.
According to NSM, the incident in Norway was a DDoS attack. A network is flooded with requests to paralyze it. Institutions that offer important services are affected. No further details were given. The Norwegian Labor Inspectorate’s website could not be accessed on Wednesday. According to media reports, the authority is among the victims of the attack.
