Massive Cyber Attack Hits All Major Norwegian Banks and Financial Institutions

July 10, 2014

Anonymous Norway claim massive cyber-attack on Norwegian banks

Anne Sewell

Digital Journal

A massive cyber-attack was launched Tuesday, simultaneously affecting many of the top banks and financial institutions in Norway. Dubbed the country’s biggest-ever network attack, responsibility has already been claimed by Anonymous Norway.

The simultaneous attack hit eight companies’ websites, including DNB, Danske Bank, Nordea, Norges Bank, Sparebank 1 and Telenor, as well as two insurance companies, Storebrand and Gjensidige in what is probably the richest country in the world. Both the online payment systems and the companies’ official websites were hit and all had serious IT problems from the morning until late on Tuesday evening. According to IT experts, Evry, while the size of the attack itself was not unusual, this is the first hacking attack of its kind to simultaneously hit so many large agencies, crashing their websites. The Norwegian news service, Dagens Næringsliv, quoted Sverre Olesen, manager of Evry’s security team as saying, “The extent of the attack is not the greatest we have seen, but it is the first time that such an attack has hit so many central agencies in the financial sector in Norway.”

“Several sectors are affected, but I cannot be certain whether these are random targets or not,” he added. Initially it was thought that the cyber-attack came from hackers outside of the country but later Anonymous Norway took the blame. Apparently the hackers exploited a weakness in the mainstream computer software, Wordpress. They reportedly then attempted to take control of web traffic to the banks’ websites, causing many of them to crash and giving endless problems to clients trying to access the sites and their online banking accounts. Visitors to the Norges Bank website received the following message: “Tango Down | Status OFFLINE. “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us. Med vennlig hilsen,” Anonymous Norway.” No actual reason for the cyber-attack was given, however.

Norwegian sources: Dagens Næringslivs News in English Norway The Local