Norway cyberattacks tripled, agency says

Norway's National Security Authority said Tuesday that successful cyber operations against Norwegian organisations had tripled over the past year.

Arne Christian Haugstoyl, director of the NSM cybersecurity agency, said several of the operations had serious consequences and continued to pose a risk to national security. The agency did not identify who was behind the attacks.

The NSM said its first public evaluation of cyber risks rated the threat level to Norway as "heightened", the second level on a five-point scale.

Haugstoyl cited a spring cyberattack on Lorenskog, a municipality in Oslo's suburbs, where a large amount of data was stolen and offered for sale on the dark web.

He said artificial intelligence is giving attackers a powerful tool. "The use of AI allows data to be exploited and misappropriated at a professional level, on a scale and in greater ways than before," he said.