Norway’s shared government digital infrastructure has been hit by a major Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, causing problems across several important public services. The attack began at around 3:38 a.m. CEST on Monday, August 24, and continued into Tuesday. Norway’s Digitalisation Agency, known as Digdir, confirmed that its systems were being targeted. The agency works with its operations provider Vivicta to manage several of the country’s key digital government services.
The attack affected around ten important digital services used by citizens, businesses and government organisations. These include ID-porten, MinID, Altinn, Maskinporten, eFormidling, eInnsyn, ELMA, Ansattporten and other shared services. ID-porten is especially important because it provides digital identification and access to many public services. When these shared systems experience problems, people can also face difficulties accessing services that are not directly being attacked.
A DDoS attack works by sending an extremely large amount of artificial internet traffic towards a system. The goal is to overload the infrastructure so normal users cannot access the service properly. In this case, people reported failed connections, slow responses and unusually long login times. Some services were completely unavailable for short periods, while others continued working with limited access. Digdir said its systems had been stabilised in many areas, although some services were still experiencing disruptions.
The scale of the latest attack has also raised concern because Digdir said it was much larger than the recent attacks against Norwegian government systems. Digdir press officer Are Kvistad told Norwegian media that the current attack was around two to three times larger than previous attacks. The agency also warned that DDoS attacks can happen in waves, meaning users may continue to experience problems even after services appear to recover. Technical teams have therefore continued working to limit the impact and keep services available.
The incident is particularly important because so many everyday activities in Norway depend on these digital systems. People use online government platforms for tasks related to taxes, welfare services, health services, official communication and other public services. Altinn, which connects citizens, businesses and government agencies, was also affected by the disruption. Some health-related services that depend on ID-porten for authentication also experienced login problems, including difficulties with certain online pharmacy and electronic prescription services.
This is not the first DDoS incident to affect Norway’s government digital infrastructure this year. Digdir said the latest attack is the third such attack against its services in a short period, following incidents in June and on August 3. During the earlier August attack, several shared government services became unavailable, including ID-porten, and users experienced problems logging into services such as Helsenorge, NAV and Skatteetaten. Digdir later reported that those services had returned to normal operation.
Despite the widespread disruption, there is currently no indication that attackers broke into the affected systems or accessed personal information. Digdir has stressed that the purpose of a DDoS attack is to affect availability rather than necessarily steal data. The Norwegian National Security Authority and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority have both been notified about the incident. At the time of the latest reports, authorities had not officially identified who was responsible for the attack, and there was no confirmed attribution to any particular country or group.
The repeated attacks highlight how dependent modern governments have become on shared digital infrastructure. A problem with one important authentication or communication system can quickly affect many other public services that rely on it. Norwegian authorities are continuing to monitor the situation and take steps to stabilise the affected platforms. While the attack has caused serious access problems, officials have so far found no evidence of a data breach, making service availability the main issue in this latest cyberattack.
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