Norway’s National Security Authority (NSM) has raised the country’s cyber risk level to “high”.
As a result, the agency urged local businesses and organisations to take immediate security measures, according to the agency’s website.
The head of the agency, Arne, explained that the decision to publish this assessment was driven by the need to urgently strengthen the resilience of government bodies and businesses to cyberattacks.
The heightened threat primarily concerns the defence sector, the space industry, critical infrastructure and service providers for organisations that affect national security. According to the NSM, over the past six months the number of successful cyber operations against Norwegian companies has tripled. Some of them have had serious consequences and continue to threaten the country’s security.
The situation is also being influenced by the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Hackers have begun using language models and autonomous AI systems that analyse data and find vulnerabilities far faster than humans. This makes it possible to carry out attacks more frequently and on a larger scale.
To counter the threats, the NSM has prepared a package of recommendations. The agency advises organisations to implement phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, update or decommission outdated devices, thoroughly check supply chains, control software and continuously test protective systems for effectiveness.
- Meanwhile, government websites in the Netherlands, Finland and other European countries temporarily stopped working after critical vulnerabilities were discovered in the PHP programming language. Against the backdrop of reports that hackers were exploiting the vulnerabilities, government agencies took online resources offline as a precautionary measure.
- The United Kingdom will suspend a number of government services due to cyber vulnerabilities.