Both the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo and the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm were targets of a cyberattack on the very day last month that the various Nobel Prizes were being awarded. The attacks were just revealed this week and have been reported to police.
The official websites for the Nobel Prizes were hit by a so-called “distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)” attack, just as the prize ceremonies were being streamed live from Oslo and Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of prize benefactor Alfred Nobel’s death. The sites were subjected to “extremely high loads … designed to try to prevent our ability to update and publish new information about the Nobel Prize and the achievements of the Nobel Laureates,” wrote the Nobel Foundation in a press release.
The attack is thus viewed as “a serious attack on the Nobel Prize” and both the Nobel Foundation and Norwegian Nobel Institute have reported it to the police. Both claim such attacks pose “a long-term threat to the freedom of expression.” The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists this year who challenge authoritarian regimes that restrict freedom of expression,
The Nobel Foundation reported that it had no information as to who was behind the cyberattack. It was averted, wrote the foundation, “and did not affect website users’ experience or the dissemination of content.”
newsinenglish.no staff
