Norway's Digital Government Infrastructure Hit by a New DDoS Attack
Norway’s Digital Government Infrastructure Hit by a New DDoS Attack 🚨
Norway’s shared digital government infrastructure has been hit by another distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that disrupted services used by citizens, businesses, and public agencies. The incident began at 03:38 CEST on Monday, August 24, and targeted infrastructure operated by the Norwegian Digitalisation Agency, Digdir, along with its service provider Vivicta.
This marks the third DDoS attack against Digdir’s services in a short period, following incidents in June and on August 3. According to a statement from Digdir, several shared services became completely unavailable for short periods, while others remained accessible but suffered connection failures, slow responses, and longer-than-usual login times.
Digdir operates several pieces of Norway’s shared public-sector infrastructure, including ID-porten, MinID, Maskinporten, eFormidling, eInnsyn, and the Contact and Reservation Register. When a shared authentication service goes down, the disruption can propagate to services that aren’t themselves under attack. Altinn, Norway’s central platform for communication between citizens, businesses, and government, was also affected, leading to login problems for other public services relying on ID-porten.
Digdir has emphasized that the incident is about availability, not evidence of a successful intrusion. The agency has found no indication that personal data was exposed. “There are no indications that the attack has led to a security breach or that personal data has been compromised,” says Director Frode Danielsen at Digdir.
Digdir has notified Norway’s National Security Authority (NSM) and the Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) as part of its response. While Digdir’s services have largely stabilized, some disruptions remain. As of the latest updates, ID-porten still had limitations, and eSignering remained unavailable due to those restrictions.
Currently, there is no official attribution for the attacks. Norwegian media have speculated about possible Russian involvement, but this remains unconfirmed. What is clear is the target and the effect: the attacks repeatedly hit infrastructure that underpins a large number of Norwegian digital public services. This case serves as a reminder that cybersecurity isn’t limited to confidentiality and integrity; availability is also a critical security property, especially when the affected systems provide national digital services.