Norway Spy Agency Hacked; Russia Accused

Norway reported on Wednesday that its spy agency and others were hacked earlier this year and accused Russian intelligence of being behind the intrusion.

Nine personal civil servant email accounts were breached, including ones belonging to the Labour Party and the foreign and defense ministries, according to USA Today.

The Police Security Service (PST), which also had an email account hacked, said it believed the attack was done by a hacking group that goes by “Cozy Bear,” linked to the Russian Security Service, or FSB.

Officials in the U.S. believe that “Cozy Bear” was the hacking group that broke into Democratic National Committee computers last year in a “spear phishing” attack, USA Today reported, the same kind of attack used in Norway.

According to PST spokesman Martin Bernstein, the agency got a warning earlier this year from a foreign agency, which he wouldn’t name, about possible attacks. “[The attacks] can be traced back to Russia,” Bernstein told The Associated Press.

Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg said on Norwegian news that the hacking “is a serious attack on our democratic institutions,” even though no classified material was taken, according to officials, USA Today said.

“It is incredibly important that everyone take precautions to not open emails [when] you do not know the sender,” Solberg said to TV 2 in Norway. 

Russia and Norway have had a period of tense relations since Norway agreed to allow 300 U.S. Marines to be stationed there last month for the first time since World War II. The Marines will come from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and will be in Norway for a year in total, in two different six-month rotations of soldiers, USA Today reported.

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