Norwegian authorities recently confirmed that one of the country’s dams was targeted by hackers. The group, who are believed to be Pro-Russian actors, remotely accessed the Bremanger dam in April and opened up one of the valves.
The hacker group’s actions allowed the dam to release 132 gallons of water per second. Worse, it continued to do so for four hours before the authorities realised something was amuck and put a stop to the breach. In total, the dam let through a total of two million gallons, but the deluge did not cause any injuries of material damage.
“Over the past year, we have seen a change in activity from pro-Russian cyber actors,” Beate Gangaas, head of Norway’s PST security police agency, said in a speech. “The aim of this type of operation is to influence and to cause fear and chaos among the general population,” she said. “Our Russian neighbour has become more dangerous.”
Norway isn’t alone in this. Western intelligence officials have warned that Russia’s alleged cyberattacks are becoming increasingly reckless, ranging from arson and vandalism to attacks on infrastructure to attempted assassinations and cyberattacks, since its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia, obviously, has denied and rejected such accusations, saying that they are “unfounded and politically motivated”. “It is obvious that the PST is unsuccessfully trying to substantiate the mythical threat of Russian sabotage against Norwegian infrastructure this year, which it itself invented in its February (annual) report,” it said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
