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Expert expects new cyberattacks around King Harald's funeral

From Aftenposten · () Norwegian

Translated from Norwegian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Cybersecurity expert Lars Eirik Berg says Norway faces a very high likelihood of further distributed denial-of-service attacks on Wednesday, when King Harald's funeral is scheduled.
  • He expects public-facing services such as logins and booking systems to be likely targets, but does not believe the funeral itself will be disrupted.
  • Berg urged caution in media coverage of a pro-Russian group that has claimed responsibility for recent attacks, while Norway's National Security Authority called for stronger safeguards and backup systems.

Norway should expect more denial-of-service attacks around King Harald's funeral on Wednesday, cybersecurity expert Lars Eirik Berg told NTB. He put the likelihood at “99 percent or more,” but said he did not expect the funeral itself to be disrupted.

Denial-of-service attacks, I would say, are almost 99 percent or more guaranteed. They will continue.

· Lars Eirik BergThe cybersecurity expert assessed the likelihood of further attacks.

Berg, a security expert at Semaphore, pointed to recent distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks affecting ID-porten logins, university websites and the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. Such attacks overwhelm servers with traffic rather than breaking into systems, and services generally return to normal once the assault ends.

He said attackers were more likely to target services visible to the public, including login systems and booking platforms. These attacks are usually driven by the desire for attention and media coverage, making systems whose disruption people notice especially attractive targets.

The likelihood is probably greater that they will try to hit what the public notices.

· Lars Eirik BergBerg described the types of systems he expected attackers to target.

Organizations can respond with scalable DDoS protection outside their services and by increasing server capacity. Berg said those measures are expensive and cannot provide complete coverage. Critical services, he argued, should have systems that automatically scale up during major attacks.

You can never have 100 percent coverage against denial-of-service attacks. It would be extremely expensive.

· Lars Eirik BergHe explained the limits and cost of protecting services from DDoS attacks.

A pro-Russian group has claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on social media, posting attack times, screenshots of inaccessible websites and media reports. Berg criticized media outlets for giving the group publicity, while acknowledging that the attacks still need to be reported. Norway's National Security Authority has also warned that unavailable critical services could have consequences and urged organizations to improve security, maintain backup solutions and rehearse their responses.

The security must be raised. Organizations in Norway must ensure backup solutions and practice how they handle this type of incident.

· Norway's National Security AuthorityThe authority called for stronger preparedness against attacks on critical services.
About this summary

Originally published by Aftenposten in Norwegian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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