FILE PHOTO: Silhouettes of laptop users are seen next to a screen projection of binary code are seen in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) - Location tracking company Unacast has confirmed to the Norwegian government that it was the victim of a hack, according to a notice published by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK on Friday.
Last week claims began circulating online that Unacast's data broker subsidiary Gravy Analytics had been the victim of a digital heist. Experts told Reuters that leaked data published to the internet by the hacker or hackers appeared to be genuine, but the company has so far not returned repeated messages seeking comment.
The document published by NRK is addressed to Norway's data protection authority and says that the breach involved the theft of information from a Gravy Analytic's web server using a "misappropriated" key. It quotes Unacast's lawyers, BakerHostetler, as saying that the breach was discovered on Jan. 4 but that its timing was still under investigation.
The law firm was also quoted as saying that a preliminary investigation showed that some of the stolen files "could contain personal data."
Calls to Norway's data protection authority rang unanswered after-hours on Friday. BakerHostetler didn't immediately return messages. Unacast has not returned repeated messages seeking comment.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter and AJ Vicens; Editing by Leslie Adler)
