Norway’s Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) says names and email addresses belonging to 20,614 registered users of its Grants Portal may have been exposed in a cyberattack, while grant application information from three organizations was confirmed leaked. The agency says attackers accessed the portal on October 30 using 27 misused user accounts. Norad’s affected-user notice, published on November 5 and updated on November 6, clarifies which information may have been exposed.
The potentially exposed contact records include first names, last names and email addresses for users associated with 12,511 organizations worldwide. Norad says the exposure of a person’s contact details does not mean that their account was misused or that their organization’s application information was leaked. The owners of the 27 accounts used in the intrusion and the three organizations whose application information was taken have been notified directly.
Norad says the Grants Portal was shut down after the attack was discovered and that it is working with external cybersecurity specialists to establish the full scope of the incident. The agency has notified Norway’s Data Protection Authority, the National Security Authority and police. It also cannot rule out that names of applicants operating in conflict zones or authoritarian states were accessed. The identity of the attackers remains unknown.
The portal is used by Norad and Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive applications for development aid and project funding. The agency says grant applications are not assessed and funding is not disbursed through the portal itself. Norad’s original incident statement says the service has been in use since 2017 and supports applicants and partner organizations around the world.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
