Amedia AS

History

2021: Hacker Attack

On December 28, 2021, Amedia, the largest local news publisher in Norway, announced that several of its central computer systems had been shut down in a "major" cyber attack.

Several central computer systems of Norway's largest publishing house, Amedia, were shut down in a massive cyber attack. The hacker attack on December 28 stopped the printing of newspapers, and the problem has not yet been resolved. The systems responsible for newspaper publishing, advertising and subscription management failed. This was stated by Paul Nedregotten, executive vice president of technology at Amedia.

Norway's largest newspapers, including Amedia, do not come out due to a hacker attack

The attacked subscription system contains names, addresses, phone numbers, subscription form, and subscriber history. Other data, such as passwords, reading history, bank card information, etc., are not affected, the publication says.

Until it is possible to restore the work of the publishing house, paper newspapers will not be published. You can't order ads, subscribe, or unsubscribe from them. It also remains unclear whether personal information about subscribers and employees has been lost or compromised. There is no reliable information about what happened yet. But the company did not rule out the worst development of events.

Amedia publishes more than 90 newspapers and other printed materials. Reaching an audience of more than 2.5 million Norwegians.

This is the third cyber attack on Norwegian companies in December 2021. On December 21, one of the largest food manufacturers in the country, Nortura, shut down its IT systems after a hacker attack on several factories. On Christmas Eve on December 24, the municipality of Nordland County, the regional government of much of northern Norway, shut down computer systems due to a data breach. The incident affected various municipal services, including schools and clinics. According to official figures, the problems were minor.

In March 2021, the information systems of the Norwegian parliament were also subjected to a cyber attack, the source of which could not be established. A year earlier, hackers attacked the email system and stole data from the "boxes" of elected representatives.^[1]

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