Recent Cybersecurity News from the Nordics Region

In today's digital world, cyberattacks are a continual worry for businesses and government institutions. Despite the fact that Nordic countries networks are vulnerable to cyberattacks much like those in many other countries and these country nonetheless confronts hundreds of attacks each year. Today, we'll discuss some of these threats; first, let's explore the most recent headlines.

• Swedish grocery retailer Coop was subject to a cyberattack leading to shutdown of more than half of its 800 stores. The cyberattack was not directed specifically at Coop but was part of a global event aimed at the American software company Kaseya. By exploiting a security flaw in the software, attackers infected Kaseya customer systems with the REvil encryption Trojan. Visma Esscom, one of Coop's suppliers, was hit by the IT attack because it uses Kaseya technology. Visma Esscom, according to Swedish news agency TT, manages servers and devices for several Swedish businesses. This, in turn, had an impact on the operation of Coop's point-of-sale tills and self-service checkouts, resulting in store closures.
  
  
• Another attack was aimed at Bauhaus Denmark, CEO Mads Jørgensen stated; “We have got really busy and everywhere we are fighting hard to handle the situation. Our focus is the customers and to continue to provide the best possible service. For the time being, our department stores are open as usual”. The department stores are open, but Bauhaus was forced to suspend their click & collect service due to the attack. The stock figures on bauhaus.dk do not correspond to either the webshop warehouse or the department store warehouse due to technical difficulties. Customer support center is available via the phone, but mail system is temporarily suspended. Bauhaus IT is trying to find a way to mitigate the breach.

• Oslo based technology company Volue which provides solutions in renewable energy transition was a victim of a cyberattack which led to an impact on operations in some of the company's business areas. CEO Trond Straume stated their priority is to ensure safe and uninterrupted operations for their customers. The Volue attack disabled applications that provided infrastructure to water and wastewater facilities in 200 Norwegian municipalities, covering approximately 85 percent of the country's population. To prevent the ransomware from spreading to other computer systems, the company disabled all other applications hosted on its servers and quarantined approximately 200 employee devices.
  
  Two weeks after the incident, COO Vigleik Takle stated; more than 95% of customers were deemed safe and added that they had no evidence of data exfiltration. The COO finished his words by highlighting they made swift progress and will be fully operational in a matter of days.
  
  
• Last fall, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) announced that APT31 which has ties to the Chinese government was behind a cyber espionage campaign targeting the Finnish parliament. SUPO discovered a state-run cyber espionage operation aimed at infiltrating the parliament's IT systems. The hackers targeted Microsoft Exchange servers in order to gain access to a number of compromised parliamentary email accounts. The UK's NCSC also confirms that Chinese state-backed actors are responsible for gaining access to computer networks around the world, indicating that at least 30,000 organizations have been compromised in the US alone, with many more affected globally. The attackers are targeting maritime industries, naval defense contractors and government entities in the United States and Europe, including the Finnish parliament in 2020.

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