From Iceland — Icelandic Power Company Hacked, Robbed Of 400 Million ISK

Icelandic Power Company Hacked, Robbed Of 400 Million ISK

Published September 9, 2019

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
Christian Bickel/Wikimedia Commons

HS Orka, one of Iceland’s major suppliers of geothermal energy, announced that they had been hacked by foreign parties. In an interview with RÚV, the departing CEO of HS Orka, Ásgeir Margeirsson, went into further detail.

While he confirmed that the hackers had embezzled some 400 million ISK from HS Orka accounts, he emphasised that customers will not feel the pinch.

“The degree of the matter is such that it does not interrupt operations in any way,” he said. “Although this is a significant amount of money, it’s important to put it within the context of the size and operations of the company. Customers, suppliers or others will not feel the effects of this attack despite the damage it did. So it’s not a blow to the company.”

As the matter is being investigated by the police, Ásgeir did not want to go into great detail about the nature of the attack or who exactly was behind it, saying only that foreign parties were behind it. He credits the fast response of both HS Orka employees and the police in triaging the damage before matters got worse.

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