OSLO, Norway (AP) — A pro-Russian hacker group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that has affected multiple Norwegian government digital services over the past three days.
The cyberattack has been ongoing since Monday, said Are Kvistad, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Digitalization Agency (Digdir), the state body in charge of making Norway's public services more digital and user-friendly, told The Associated Press.
“It's the biggest attack against Digdir solutions that we have ever experienced,” Kvistad said.
The denial-of-service attacks meant that hackers pushed massive traffic toward the agency in order to block services, including one that enables citizens to use one login across multiple public services.
However, the Digdir spokesman said that the agency managed to keep the services running “practically all the time.”
In a Telegram post on Wednesday widely reported by Norwegian media, the pro-Russian hacker group Server Killers claimed responsibility for the attack and said it had declared cyber war on Norway after the country renewed its security cooperation with Ukraine on Aug. 23.
On Sunday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced during a visit to Kyiv that Norway would provide 85 billion Norwegian crowns (9.2 billion US dollars) to Ukraine from next year’s state budget for a third year in a row.
The two countries also committed to further cooperation when it comes to drone technology and other forms of modern warfare.
Norwegian officials did not comment on the hackers' claim by publication time.
All countries in Europe are on high alert with Russia stepping up its sabotage and malign activity across the continent since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Officials say the attacks are intended to undermine support for Ukraine, spread fear and discord in European societies and drain investigative resources.
In 2025, Norwegian authorities said Russian hackers were likely behind suspected sabotage at a dam in the country. During that incident, hackers gained access to a digital system which remotely controls one of the dam’s valves and opened it to increase the water flow. A three-minute long video showing the dam’s control panel and a mark identifying a pro-Russian cybercriminal group was published on Telegram at the time, the police said.
Last year, Danish authorities blamed Russia for carrying out cyberattacks against infrastructure and websites in Denmark in 2024 and 2025. Danish officials said pro-Russian group Z-Pentest carried out a “destructive attack” on the water utility company in 2024 and that a separate group, NoName057(16), was responsible for a cyberattack on Danish websites ahead of the 2025 local elections. Voth have links to the Russian state, they said.
According to Norwegian media, Server Killers were linked directly or indirectly to previous cyberattacks in Norway and other European countries.
FILE - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy greets Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere ahead of the flag-raising ceremony to mark the National Flag Day in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Democratic-controlled states on Wednesday filed another lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail voting in this year's midterm elections.
The action, filed by about two dozen states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation just two days after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a separate case, but did not say Trump’s order was legal.
The high court majority found the Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing Postal Service delivery of mail ballots. Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement in the days before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.
“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. “USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.”
Trump’s executive order remains barred from taking effect under a separate injunction that the administration argues needs to be immediately rescinded in light of the high court’s ruling in the previous Democratic state lawsuit. It also had succeeded in a third case filed in May in the District of Columbia, convincing a judge that it was too early to prevent its implementation of the executive order.
All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night. The rule says that if states want their mail ballots delivered, they will need federal approval of the design of their envelopes and must give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday said the Postal Service’s proposals were “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and that the administration would continue to work to implement them to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”
The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump’s order after he declined to do so last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action. In Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani also found that the administration moving forward with the mail ballot rule had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service prohibiting it from enacting Trump’s order, although she did not take any action against the government.
Talwani, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, had issued the injunction against Trump’s executive order in the prior Democratic state case, which is the one the Supreme Court overturned on Monday. She has yet to act on the administration’s urging her to revoke her second injunction. It was issued Aug. 11 in a case against the executive order and was filed by the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups while the Supreme Court was considering the administration’s appeal of the judge's first order.
Trump has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump’s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules, saying he thinks Republicans should “take over” vote counting in Democratic areas.
He issued his first election executive order just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.
FILE - A worker sorts ballots at the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center during the California primary election, June 2, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang, File)
President Donald Trump listens during a back to school event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
An election worker sorts vote-by-mail ballots at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office for the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
An election worker places a vote-by-mail ballot into a secure bin at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office during the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
