Norwegian companies get ever less time to respond to AI-driven attacks, Telenor report says

Telenor's new security report, "Digital Sikkerhet", says Norwegian companies have less and less time to respond to cyberattacks because attackers are now using AI. The report shares Telenor's open threat assessment and insights from its security team. It was reported by NTB on 20 October 2026.

The biggest change from last year, according to the report, is that AI is actively used in attacks. Telenor writes that vulnerabilities are being found and exploited at a pace never seen before. Where defenders once had hours or days to act, the worst case today is only minutes.

Telenor Norway CEO Birgitte Engebretsen says AI lets threat actors identify vulnerabilities in software before the vendors discover them or have found ways to close them. Telenor first saw this way of finding and exploiting weaknesses last year, and over the past six months it has seen a growing increase. Telenor has itself handled several such vulnerabilities. Engebretsen says the company expects attempts to exploit this type of flaw to keep rising.

She places the trend in a wider threat picture marked by geopolitical unrest, hybrid threats, concentration of digital power and growing digital crime. Cyber threats against Norway are becoming more serious and complex, she says, and often target critical infrastructure, public systems and organisations with socially critical functions.

The report matters because it shows AI shrinking the window defenders have to patch or respond, with the gap between a vulnerability being found by attackers and being fixed by vendors becoming a central risk for Norwegian organisations.