Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said on Monday that a cyber attack on the Nordic country’s parliament e-mail system on March 10 was carried out from China, and she urged Chinese authorities to take steps to prevent similar action in the future.
“This is a serious incident which has hit our most important democratic institution,” Norway’s Foreign Minister said in a statement, Reuters reported.
An investigation by the country’s intelligence services revealed that the attack was carried out by China, and several of Norway’s allies, including the European Union and Microsoft, confirmed this conclusion, the Foreign Minister added.
The attack took advantage of a security flaw in Microsoft’s Exchange software.
“Chinese authorities must prevent such attacks,” Soereide said, adding that she expected China to take the issue very seriously.
According to Soereide, the Chinese ambassador to Norway was summoned on Monday to discuss the matter directly.
