The Nobel Institute confirms that the Machado prize was leaked, but cannot specify how

The Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed on Tuesday that investigations have concluded that the news of the award of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was illegally leaked, but it has not been possible to determine how.

"Since several people posted significant amounts of money on the websites hours before the announcement, we can safely say that some actors were able to illegally access information about last year's decision," the institute said in a statement.

Several experts have investigated the Institute's information systems, "both physical and digital," and have not been able to determine "how the information was obtained," or "who obtained it, or whether it was a private actor or a state."

The Norwegian Nobel Institute has pointed out that it has detected "weaknesses" in its information systems, while stressing that the Nobel Peace Prize has always attracted international interest "even among actors who do not have benevolent motives."

It has therefore decided to take "a number of measures" to strengthen protection against external threats and has reviewed its digital infrastructure.

"Many of these measures were planned before last year's leak, but not implemented," the Nobel Institute said, explaining that it cannot provide further details of the investigation, findings and new measures "for security reasons."

In statements to the Norwegian media last weekend, Kristian Berg, director of the Harpviken Nobel Institute, ruled out the leak from inside the institute.

"All we know is that we've tried to clarify it and we haven't been lucky. We've followed the tracks and tracked everything down, but I feel very confident that it wasn't an internal leak," Harpviken told the Norwegian agency NTB.