Whaling puts Norway on Anonymous hackers' attack list: report

OSLO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Several institutions in Norway have appeared on the attack list of the international hacktivist network Anonymous because of the country's whaling activities, newspaper Aftenposten reported Thursday.

"As a result of whaling, several groups have targeted Norway," said Lone Charlotte Pettersen, head of the Internet-related investigation support at the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos).

Anonymous, activists and other organizations annually organize several operations aimed at Norway, Iceland, Japan and the Faroe Islands. The operations are not motivated by money or desire to commit crimes but by stopping whaling, the report said.

People behind the operations have openly published lists of several Norwegian websites that they would like to be attacked.

The lists indicate, among other things, what type of server the site uses and the IP address. The Norwegian government, Visit Norway and Mathallen in Oslo, a market place of food courts, are among the institutions whose websites are on the list.

Banks and media, tourism and academic institutions are also among the targets of so-called "hacktivists".

Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries confirmed to Aftenposten that it experienced attacks in May this year and has since introduced measures to prevent this.

"They want to attack Norway. Anyone could therefore be affected. As long as they can do a damage, they are satisfied," Pettersen said. "Here we should wish we had better control. This is generally a challenge for Kripos and the police."

Although the extent of hacktivism was confirmed low in Norway last year, the National Security Authority has seen an increasing trend in recent years.

At the same time, the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries increased the whaling quota to 999 this year. In Iceland, it was recommended to catch up to 224 whales from 2016 to 2018, while Japan's whaling quota is 333 whales a year. No other country performs whaling. Enditem