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Sweden sees increase in cyber attacks seeking to disrupt election

Rafaela Lindeberg (Bloomberg)

Stockholm, Sweden

Thu, August 30, 2018 Published on Aug. 30, 2018 Published on 2018-08-30T14:02:33+07:00

Computers around the globe were hacked beginning on Friday using a security flaw in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, an older version that was no longer given mainstream tech support by the US giant. (Shutterstock/File)

S

weden is increasingly under attack by forces trying to influence and disrupt the election in 10 days, Swedish Radio reported.The Security Service has seen an increase in activities such as electronic attacks on government agencies and political organizations, declining to name specifics, SR said.

There’s also a spread of international news stories about Sweden being a “country in chaos,” Linda Escar, a deputy unit head at the security police, told Swedish Radio.

"We are handling a mass of activities and incidents and will in our intelligence work with others attempt to puzzle together who is behind each activity,” she said.

The Security Service stressed that it isn’t seeing any “major” effort to influence the election and that every aberration isn’t related to a foreign power or to the election.

But the agency has increased preparedness for an escalation.On Tuesday, the Swedish Defense Research Agency published a report showing how Twitter bots are multiplying to ramp up support for the nationalist Sweden Democrats.