Mikael Ricknäs reports:
Norway’s Altinn portal had to be closed after users got access to data belonging to two people, and on Thursday the site remained down.
The Altinn portal is used by Norwegians to access their tax returns, among other documents. The portal is also used by 455,000 companies, which can view VAT (value added tax) statements.
On Thursday, at noon Central European Time, visitors to the site were greeted with the message: “We are continuously working to solve the problem, but are unfortunately not able to give any exact time for when the page will be available again.”
The data leak happened on Tuesday when a person accessed his Altinn account. Afterward, as other users logged in, they were able to see his and his wife’s name and ID number, according to the Brønnøysund Register Center.
The information was available between 6:17 p.m. and 6:34 p.m. local time, after which the portal was taken offline, the register center said.
Read more on CIO. TechWeek Europe provides some additional details, while Reuters reports than estimated 1,500- 2, 000 people logged in and saw the individuals’ social security number, earnings, mortgage payments and other details , leading some to start a new slogan, “Today, we are all Kenneth.”