Norway summons Chinese Ambassador over IT attack against Parliament

Oslo [Norway] July 21 (ANI): Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide informed that the ministry has summoned the Chinese Ambassador about alleged China’s IT attack on the Norwegian Parliament.

On 10 March, the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) disclosed that its email systems had been compromised. The breach exploited security vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange software, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

“All cyber operations leave different forms of traces, and then it is, among other things, our security services that make assessments of that and compile that information. And on the basis of this information, the government has made an assessment that the attack originated from China,” the statement said citing Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide.

“This was a very serious incident affecting our most important democratic institution. We expect China to take this issue seriously, and to ensure that such incidents are not repeated,” Soreide added.

In March, Chinese hackers reportedly attacked Australia’s Western parliamentary email network as well, this was a part of a massive global cyberattack involving Microsoft software.

The online strike, which was detected on March 4 in the middle of the state election campaign, prompted intervention from Australia’s cybersecurity watchdog in Canberra.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said that the flaw was being used by a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group to target a variety of organisations. (ANI)