When Nicolai Tangen took over as head of the Oil Fund, the security department hired some of the world’s best hackers to launch a targeted attack. Tangen failed the test.
The head of the Government Pension Fund Global – the so-called Oil Fund – told the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv that he was fooled by the hackers who, fortunately, weren’t really out to get him.
“I received an inquiry from Lillesands-Posten, which is the world-famous newspaper we have in Sørlandet, and they wanted to have a small summer interview, where they asked some fairly reasonable questions,” Tangen said.
“After that, I received an email from someone we thought worked at Lillesands-Posten where there was a check of quotes, and then I just had to press the button to approve these quotes. I did so, along with several others in the organization.”
Malware
That click helped the hackers gain full control of his PC.
“That document was infected with malware that gave us control of the machine,” security architect Karim El-Melhaoui, who was involved in arranging the test, said.
“What I saw for the first time is how tailored these attacks can be. And how much time they can spend getting acquainted with our background, our habits, and so on,” Tangen added.
Source : © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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