Norwegian mobile data breach linked to Russian hackers
Russian hackers allegedly compromised data from cell phones belonging to 148,000 Norwegians. The data protection authority considers the scale of the event to be "potentially enormous."
The stolen data reportedly includes information about the location and movement of mobile phone users. Norwegian broadcaster NRK refers to an announcement on a Russian hacker forum. The post's authors claim that the acquired information can be attributed to specific subscribers.
Cited by NRK, Tobias Judin from the Norwegian data protection authority Datatilsynet admitted that the incident could have serious consequences.
Potentially, the scale of the theft could be enormous. The acquired data may contain sensitive information that can be used to influence and manipulate those it concerns, he told Norwegian journalists.
The location data was reportedly stolen from the Norwegian-American company Gravy Analytics. It was collected from apps installed on mobile devices. In 2024, the United States Federal Trade Commission accused the company of illegal trading in mobile phone user data, containing information about personal relationships, pregnancies, political views, and the religious beliefs of mobile device users.
In December, Reuters reported that Gravy Analytics reached an agreement with the Joe Biden administration prohibiting the company from collecting location data.
Neither NRK nor Reuters received any comment from Gravy Analytics regarding the data theft.
