50 Norwegian oil companies suffer cyber attack

Yes, I said “cyber”. Yesterday 50 Norwegian businesses came under a concerted attack by parties unknown. The exact nature of the attack has not come to light just yet. From Dagbladet (Norweigian):

Norwegian oil and energy industry is these days the victim of the most widespread hacker attack against Norwegian interests ever, according to the national security authority (NSM). 50 businesses in the oil industry confirmed the attack and a further 250 are notified now of the national security authority, which is the national warning and coordination authority for serious computer attacks. 

One of the affected companies is Norway’s Statoil. A spokesman for the company shared that they had been provided notification to check on the integrity of their systems.  The spokesperson further shared that they had information as to the source of the attack but, would not share the information at this point. If I was a betting man I would guess there was a massive DDoS to provide a distraction for a concerted breach attempt. But, I cannot be certain of course. The motivations here are curious as, in the case of Statoil, the revenues are paid into the social coffers for the most part. (Image used under CC from Leshaines123)