Norway faces a growing threat from cyberattacks and hacking, the Scandinavian country’s military intelligence service said Monday.
Russia and China were the main sources for such threats, the military intelligence service’s annual threat assessment said.
The report was released just three days after the Norwegian police security service (PST) said it suspected Russian-based hackers of attempting to hack nine email accounts linked to the PST as well as other government agencies.
“Threats in the digital arena against political, military and economic targets are increasing,” the military report read.
The military mentioned sabotage of power systems, mapping social network connections and harassing users, as well as attempts to procure classified or key information.
Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said the recent cyber attacks on Norway were not a new phenomena, but showed the importance of “keeping pace with rapid technological developments.”
Morten Haga Lunde, head of military intelligence, told reporters that Russia had used digital operations to affect polls in the US.
“Based on Russia’s activity and capacity we believe Russia has information that can be used to influence political processes and polls in other countries,” he added.
Another threat cited was posed by militant Islamists from groups like so-called Islamic State.
Although its geographical base in Syria and Iraq has declined, several terrorist attacks in Europe “inspired or delegated” by Islamic State and its supporters suggest that the threat will not decline in 2017, Lunde said.
(N.Sethurupan)
