Telenor Survey Finds Fewer Than Half of Nordic Firms Ready for Major Cyberattack

Fewer than half of Nordic business leaders believe their organisations can keep critical services running during a major cyberattack, according to a survey of 2,427 executives commissioned by Telenor across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian operator published the findings alongside a direct call for Nordic governments to coordinate the protection of shared critical infrastructure.

The numbers point to a wide gap between the region's reliance on digital services and its readiness to defend them. Only 12% of the businesses surveyed believe they are fully prepared to identify and counter AI-enabled cyber threats. Meanwhile, 36% expect to increase their spending on cybersecurity and digital resilience.

"It should concern all of us that only half of the business leaders surveyed said their organisations are prepared to keep critical operations running during a disruption," Telenor president and CEO Benedicte Schilbred Fasmer said.

What is driving the heightened risk?

The survey found that familiar attack methods still dominate digital incidents in the region. Phishing, password theft and software vulnerabilities remain the most common vectors. What has changed, in Telenor's assessment, is not the technique but the tempo.

The operator warned that threats are increasing "due to advances in AI and automation". In practical terms, tools that once required skilled attackers to operate manually can now generate attacks at machine speed and industrial scale. Only around one in eight of the surveyed businesses considers itself fully equipped to face that shift.

Telenor also flagged a structural weakness in the Nordic digital economy: interdependence. The operator warned of a ripple effect, in which an attack on one organisation cascades to others that rely on the same underlying infrastructure. A single successful breach could therefore reach far beyond its immediate target.

Why is Telenor calling for regional coordination?

The operator used the survey to press a policy argument rather than a purely commercial one. It called on Nordic governments to work more closely together on protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring continuity of service.

Fasmer noted that protections remain "still mostly a national matter", despite the troves of infrastructure the Nordic countries share with one another. That mismatch between national responsibility and cross-border dependence forms the core of Telenor's case for change.

"We need to come together to agree which services society cannot afford to lose," Fasmer argued. She added that Nordic nations should work out how to jointly shoulder the burden of cybersecurity and to assist one another in the event of an attack.

What happens next?

The findings land at a moment when European operators face growing regulatory pressure on network security, and Telenor's intervention effectively invites policymakers to move resilience planning from national silos to a regional footing. With only about a third of surveyed firms planning increased cybersecurity investment, the gap Fasmer describes is unlikely to close through spending alone, and the debate over shared Nordic responsibility looks set to intensify.