Norway’s huge Oil Fund, meant to finance pensions for future generations, has been the target of several serious hacking attempts over the last year. Hackers have also targeted specific Oil Fund employees, even calling them at their home offices in efforts to invade their computer systems.
“We have seen an increase in targeted attacks where the players try to gain access to employees’ email accounts and the IT system in general,” Carine Smith Ihenacho of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) this week.
She claimed the powerful fund, which was among those that had installed hacked software from US company SolarWinds before its contamination was discovered, has “neither lost any money or released information to these attackers.” Other hacking attempts have, meanwhile, highlighted the hazards of the home office, Ihenacho said. “We’re more vulnerable at the home office. If you’re at the office, the IT department has greater control.”
She said the Oil Fund’s employees are acutely aware of the hacking threat, and attempts to get them to click on dangerous links. Some “tailor-made” hacking attempts have targeted specific employees: “Those attacking us are steadily more sophisticated, so we need to be more sophisticated, too,” Ihenacho told DN.
newsinenglish.no staff
