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Cyberattacks on Icelandic State Institutions


The website of Iceland’s Parliament, Alþingi, is currently down. Ragna Árnadóttir, the secretary-general of Alþingi, told Vísir that both the public website and the institution’s intranet are currently down. Some parties have warned of cyberattacks in relation to the Council of Europe Summit that began in Reykjavík today and continues until tomorrow.

The website of Iceland’s Supreme Court is also down as of the time of writing, but it is not confirmed whether the two site failures are connected. Icelandic Police stated this morning, however, that cyberattacks are being aimed at Icelandic sites and while the source has not been confirmed, there are some theories as to where the attacks are coming from. The Icelandic Ministries’ website and the Court of Appeal website have also reportedly been difficult to access this morning, though they are currently up as of the time of writing.

“I can confirm there are ongoing attacks on some websites,” stated Detective Superintendent Rúnólfur Þórhallsson of the National Police Commissioner’s Office. He adds that the number of cyberattacks on Icelandic sites has been steadily increasing in the days leading up to the European Council Summit. “Our emergency security team, CERT-IS, is leading our defence against this. They are well connected with cyber security experts in all institutions and companies. So there are broad defences that are activated when something like this happens.”

Source: Iceland Review