Norway parliament says hit by a cyber attack

The Norwegian parliament suffered a cyber-attack in the past few days and the e-mail accounts of several elected members as well as employees were hacked, the national assembly and a counter-intelligence agency said on Tuesday.

“Our analysis shows that various quantities of data were downloaded,” the parliament said in a statement, without identifying the affected lawmakers and staff.

The Norwegian National Security Authority (NSA) assisted in countering the attack. “We have been involved for a few days,” NSA spokesman Trond Oevstedal said. “We are assisting parliament with analysis and technical assistance.”

It was not immediately clear who was behind the cyber-attack, or what type of attack it was.

Efforts to halt the attack had “an immediate effect”, said Marianne Andreassen, the parliament's non-elected chief administrator.