The Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Institute report a cyberattack to the police
During the Nobel Day, 10 December 2021, the official Nobel Prize websites were subjected to a cyberattack that has now been reported to the police by the Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The attack was averted and did not affect website users' experience or the dissemination of content.
Press release from the Nobel Foundation
A so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack affected the www.nobelprize.org and www.nobelpeaceprize.org websites during the Nobel Day when the prize ceremonies were being live-streamed from Oslo and Stockholm. The cyberattack subjected the websites to extremely high loads and was designed to try to prevent our ability to update and publish new information about the Nobel Prize and the achievements of the Nobel Laureates. The Nobel Foundation and the Norwegian Nobel Institute therefore regard this as a serious attack on the Nobel Prize and have reported it to the police in order to help generate awareness of this type of cyberattack, which is unfortunately becoming more common in our societies and which poses a long-term threat to the freedom of expression. At present, there is no information on what party (or parties) were behind the cyberattack.
For further information, please contact
Rebecka Oxelström, Head of Press, Nobel Foundation
[email protected], tel. +46 73 412 66 75
Bjørn H Vangen, IT-manager, Norwegian Nobel Institute
[email protected], tel. +47 22 12 93 00
About the Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation is a private foundation established in 1900 on the basis of the will of Alfred Nobel and the founding statutes promulgated in connection with the will. Its primary purpose is to ensure that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the assets made available for awarding the Nobel Prize are managed in such a way as to safeguard the economic base of the Prize in a long-term perspective and guarantee the independence of the prize-awarding institutions in their work of selecting Laureates. The Nobel Foundation is also entrusted with managing and carefully developing the trademarks and intangible assets that have been built up during the more than century-long history of the Nobel Prize.