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Sweden's a-kassa unemployment system offline after cyber attack

The Local Sweden
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Sweden's a-kassa unemployment system offline after cyber attack
A person works in the dark on an illuminated keyboard. Photo: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP.

Every one of Sweden's a-kassa unemployment funds have closed down their systems after one of them was hit by a suspected cyber attack.

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Sveriges a-kassor, the umbrella body which serves Sweden's 25 a-kassa unemployment funds, took the decision to temporarily request that all of its member organisations close down their systems, following the attack, while IT experts assess what has happened. 

"This means that members will find it difficult to access their a-kassa," the organisation wrote in a press statement on Friday. 

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"We have received intelligence about a cyber-security incident which has hit the a-kassa system, with one a-kassa particularly affected," the organisations communications chief Johan Ahlgren said.

"We are investigating this to properly understand what happened, and what could happen so that the risk is minimised. The investigation is being carried out together with our suppliers, the affected a-kassor and external consultants."

Kommunals a-kassa, one of Sweden's biggest, told SVT that they had been affected by a cyber attack. 

"We know that that we have had some sort of hacking attack carried out in our IT systems" the fund's communications chief Yesinde Aluko told SVT. "Members should not be worried because we know that no sensitive information has been taken." 

Payments, which happen once a month, would be unaffected, she added. 

The Dagens Industri newspaper said that the problem seemed to be related to issues at the IT company Softronic. 

"As a result of a security incident last night, we chose as a preventative measure to shut down all network traffic to Softtronic's systems. This means that several of our customers' systems are currently unavailable."

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