Hurtigruten Norway announced it had suffered a ransomware cyber attack on Monday, December 14, and several of its systems had been paralyzed. The Norwegian cruise and ferry company added it had no safety concerns for 2 vessels heading up to Norway's far north. The cyberattack had not disrupted communication with them, and the company didn't expect any impact on its finances.
In a statement, Ole-Marius Moe-Helgesen (Hurtigruten's head of IT) said that was a serious attack and the company's global IT infrastructure appeared to be affected, adding it appeared to be "a ransomware attack."
In order to limit the damage, the company had implemented "comprehensive measures." According to Hurtigruten's spokesman Oeystein Knoph, the company was trying to get "the best possible overview of the nature of the situation".
Hurtigruten operates regional Ro-Pax ships (car and passenger ferries) along Norway's coast and also cruises in the Arctic and Antarctica. Its leisure cruise program was canceled due to the pandemic.
The country has previously been targeted by cybercriminals in 2020. On September 1, the Norwegian parliament revealed it had sustained a cyberattack during the previous week and the email accounts of a number of lawmakers and employees had been hacked. The country blamed Russia for the cyberattack, which the Russian Federation denied.