Cyber attacks against Swedish authorities and organizations have doubled compared to last year, according to MSB’s annual report of IT incident reports.
Last year, a total of 334 IT incidents were reported to MSB. Of those, 96 were attacks, compared to 2021 and 2022 when the number of reported attacks was 48 and 40 cases, respectively.
– This is not something that we can expect will disappear in the near future, this is a normal situation that we have to rise to be able to handle, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister of Civil Defence, at a press conference.
The total reported IT incidents in 2022 and 2021 were about the same as in 2023, but then the most common cause was system errors or mistakes. Now it’s cyber attacks. The increase is mainly about overload attacks at the beginning of 2023.
MSB: “Must gear up”
Public education about which authorities are decisive when it comes to not being eliminated must increase, says MSB’s director general Charlotte Petri Gornitzka.
– It is extremely serious that it is becoming commonplace.
Sweden must take action so that organizations and authorities can get better at working with cyber security, she believes.
7 out of 10 lack the basics
On the first of March, MSB released a report that 7 out of 10 organizations lack the basics of cyber security work.
– Many organizations lack staff who work with the issues. More people are needed in socially important businesses who actively work with cyber security, says Mathias Antonsson, who leads the strategic cyber security analysis at MSB.