Norway government digital services hit by massive DDoS attack

Norway’s shared digital government infrastructure has been targeted by a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, marking the third such incident this summer. The attack, which began on Monday, August 24, has disrupted several critical public services, including ID-porten, MinID, Altinn, and E-innsyn.

The pro-Russian hacker group ‘Server Killers’ claimed responsibility for the attack via Telegram, stating they had declared ‘cyber war’ on Norway following the country’s renewed security cooperation and financial support for Ukraine. While the Norwegian Digitalization Agency (Digdir) reported that services were largely kept running and there was no evidence of a data breach or compromise of personal information, users experienced significant connection failures, slow response times, and login difficulties.

Security experts have noted the scale of the attack, with some suggesting it is the largest Digdir has ever experienced. While some officials and media have speculated about state-sponsored involvement, other analysts suggest the perpetrators could be less sophisticated actors. The Norwegian National Security Authority and the Data Protection Authority have been notified, and the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) has launched an investigation.