Sweden Tells Energy Sector to Raise Security, but Faces no Specific Threat

Sweden has told its energy industry to raise security levels following a recent cyberattack on Polish infrastructure, although this was not in response to a specific threat, the Nordic country’s signal intelligence agency said on Thursday.

Swedish TV4, citing unnamed sources, earlier reported that authorities in the Nordic nations were investigating a threat to the region’s energy providers from actors with likely links to a foreign power.

“We have recently been calling on the actors in the Swedish energy sector to be more vigilant,” Ola Billger, head of communication at Sweden’s National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), told Reuters.

“We did so last Friday and we also called on the energy sector to take certain measures to make Sweden a more difficult target,” Billger said.

Poland’s government last month said that it had managed to ward off a large cyberattack at the end of December that was aimed at disrupting communications between renewable installations and power grid operators.

Nordic police and intelligence agencies in recent years investigated damage to several underwater gas pipelines, power lines and telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea, some of which were found to be caused by deliberate attacks or sabotage.

Sweden’s electricity grid operator, Svenska Kraftnat, told Reuters it had increased vigilance at its facilities, but declined to say when it had done so.

“We are aware of the information and we cooperate with other government agencies,” a spokesperson for Sweden’s Ministry of Civil Defence told Reuters.

Norway’s Gassco, which is responsible for a vast system of pipelines and terminals supplying natural gas to Europe, said there was currently no immediate threat to Norwegian gas infrastructure.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre said energy security remained a national priority but that it had not received any new reports of threats.

Norway’s security police agency, the Norwegian National Security Authority and the Danish national security and intelligence service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, additional reporting by Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen, Nora Buli in Oslo and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik and Toby Chopra)

Photograph: Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage of undersea cables. (AP Photo/Hendrik Osula, File)