Norway's development aid agency has confirmed a cyberattack on its Grants Portal that may have exposed the personal details of all 20,614 registered users. Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, said the attackers may have gained access to the names and email addresses of every person registered on the portal, which represents 12,511 organisations around the world.

The agency discovered the intrusion on 30 October and shut the portal down immediately. According to Norad, the attackers got in by misusing 27 user accounts to log in, and then took information linked to grant applications submitted by at least three organisations based outside Norway. The portal has been in use since 2017 and is used by Norad and Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collect funding applications for development projects.

Risk to aid workers in conflict zones

The most serious concern is who the exposed names may belong to. Norad said it cannot rule out that the attackers saw the names of applicants who work in conflict zones and authoritarian states, where being linked to a foreign aid programme can carry real personal risk. The agency has reported the incident to the police, to Norway's Data Protection Authority and to the National Security Authority, and the owners of the 27 misused accounts and the three affected organisations have been told directly.

Norad is still establishing the full scale of the attack and does not yet know who is behind it. No ransomware demand or data leak has been reported, and the portal remains closed while external specialists investigate. The agency is now contacting all registered users. Read the agency's statement on norad.no, and the full report in The Register.