back to article Å nei! Norway's Stortinget struck by Microsoft Exchange malware

Norway's Parliament has joined the growing list of organisations hit by vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Exchange Server. A press release confirmed that Stortinget (the great assembly) had suffered at the hands of backdoor-installing miscreants and, worse, "we know that data has been extracted, but we do not yet have a full …

  1. schafdog
    Unhappy

    Swiss cheeses are awesome!

    Sad it is being related to Exchange Server in any way possible.

    1. seven of five

      Re: Swiss cheeses are awesome!

      Interestingly, most swiss cheese actually do not have the huge holes it is famous for. This is primarily the "Emmentaler".

      Gryuère, Vachérin (both essential for the most popular variety of cheese fondue), Appenzeller, S'Brinz and most of the more comon varieties sold in the supermarket all come without (notable) holes in them.

      Tilsiter might be an exception, though its recognition as "swiss" is difficult, it was only brought in a few hundred years ago from Pomyra. It is quite popular, though.

      Maybe someone from the Romand can correct me.

      1. I code for the bacon

        Re: Swiss cheeses are awesome!

        And so the glorious Raclette du Valais.

      2. Lars Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Swiss cheeses are awesome!

        From the Wikipedia.

        Swiss cheese (North America), any of several related varieties of cheese that resemble Emmentaler.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Windows

          Re: Swiss cheeses are awesome!

          "From the Wikipedia. ... Swiss cheese (North America), any of several related varieties of cheese that resemble Emmentaler."

          I've tasted what much of the US calls Cheddar, Swiss and American. Swiss and Cheddar are not quite the same terms I would use. I live near Cheddar Gorge.

    2. deadlockvictim

      Re: Swiss cheeses are awesome!

      Swiss cheeses *are* very nice and I'm a fan of Vacherin myself.

      The dried meats from Graubünden are also something worth trying.

      However, in these days of home-office, I've had to cut down on my cheese consumption.

      It is not at all good for the waistline.

      Maybe I ought visit the cheese shop run by Michael Palin.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    This might be an opportunity for Notes/Domino 12 to make a comeback

    I know some will howl with dispair, but don't forget that Domino 12 allows you to use a browser to access Notes databases. No more thick client with the funky shortcuts.

    Domino is much easier to manage than Exchange, and can accept way more clients. Clustering Domino mail servers is robust and responsive, and Domino is not easily hacked.

    There are some arguments in its favor now.

    1. gryphon

      Re: This might be an opportunity for Notes/Domino 12 to make a comeback

      I haven't used Notes / Domino in anger for about 20 years and even then only as a user.

      It might be the bees knees but there are 2 problems

      1. Migrating existing data from Exchange to Notes. No doubt there are tools but usually seem to be going the other way. And time consuming of course.

      2. The pool of people with Exchange experience is I would think vastly larger than that for Notes

      I would think this will actually expedite moving to the cloud rather than a different on-premises solution

    2. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

      Re: This might be an opportunity for Notes/Domino 12 to make a comeback

      Bloated Goats jokes will now commence.

    3. Rocco Granata

      Re: This might be an opportunity for Notes/Domino 12 to make a comeback

      This is actually a valid option, IF Domino was not destroyed last couple of years by IBM's preference for financial over product engineering.

      From the perspective of 2010-2014, its web interface was OK, it consumed much less (read: multiple times less) resources than Exchange, clustering was rather simple and stable, security IMHO significantly better. It was possible for an average sysadmin to manage it after reasonable amount of knowledge acquisition (one-week training and 2-3 weeks shadowing an experienced colleague).

      Migration would not be easy, which is where IBM might find job for their consultants, if they still have knowledgeable ones that cost less than million a day.

      I guess that MS is actually wanting to move most of the clients to their cloud, even at the cost of some losses along the way.

  3. naive

    Nobody gets fired when...

    their Microsoft server software is hacked.

    M$ just shrugs its shoulders while all those M$ wieners choose M$, leaving the information of millions up for the grabs.

    Pointy haired boss: "lets move to Azure, then we are safe"

    1. seven of five

      Re: Nobody gets fired when...

      Sure, once the house has burned down, there is no need for a further fire insurance...

  4. rpjs

    “-et” means “the”

    so write either “Stortinget” or “the Storting”. “The Stortinget” means “the the Storting”.

    I am not Norwegian.

    1. Claverhouse Silver badge

      Re: “-et” means “the”

      The Storting sounds like a great name for an American rural horror/crap TV series.

      1. herman

        Re: “-et” means “the”

        Storting (Dutch) means spillage, so it sounds like a horror sewage honeysuckle movie plot - I doubt whether that will be popular.

        1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

          Re: Storting (Dutch) means spillage

          Shouldn't the title therefore be:-

          Norway's Stortinget struck by Microsoft Exchange storting.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: “-et” means “the”

          "horror sewage honeysuckle movie plot"

          We used to watch Dutch TV back in the day when stationed in a strange land called West Germany. I don't recall anything quite as exciting as a "horror sewage honeysuckle" movies.

          In the UK we are (not really) bombarded with Scandi horror n police dramas. I look forwards to the Netherlander flower powered shit shows 8)

    2. Lars Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: “-et” means “the”

      Thing (assembly) or ting, a historical Scandinavian governing assembly.

      Stor is big, great and a Nordic/Germanic word like stark.

  5. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    FTFY

    Norway's Parliament has joined the growing list of organisations hit by new features vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Exchange Server.

    It's not just Microsoft, we see this everywhere, always new features being added to applications and then after a while the security bugs are fixed and then new features added ... only eleven updates to my Android phone today, I expect there will be more tomorrow.

    1. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

      Re: FTFY

      Why do we even need new features if we're not going to use it?

      Rather fix the current issues, and freeze it. Let people choose whether they want new purdy features or not, but do not force these on the consumer.

  6. Muppet Boss
    Pint

    I wonder whether this is because the patching question went through debates but did not pass voting...

  7. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Stop

    "Swiss-cheese servers"

    Jarlsberg, please.

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