HELSINKI \u2014 Finnish leaders saw an increase in the number of cyber attacks backed by hostile foreign state actors in 2017. Supo, Finland\u2019s national security intelligence service, is warning of more aggressive attacks in the future, including those targeting infrastructure critical to national security and military installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Supo has ranked terrorism-linked cyber-threats as the primary risk to Finland\u2019s national security and critical industrial infrastructure going forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps more alarming for Finland\u2019s tech-heavy technology export corporations is that Supo has identified a rising trend in state-backed cyber attacks against Finnish companies. The core focus of these attacks has been to hack information regarding critical infrastructure and sensitive product development programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCyber espionage poses a serious threat to Finnish information capital. If product development data is stolen to another country, it is possible that the company impacted could see its whole economic future put at risk,\u201d said Antti Pelttari, Supo\u2019s director general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, Finland\u2019s cyber defense \u201cshield\u201d is developing stronger counter-strategies for those Finnish corporations that have a significant international presence, and who may have contracts for outsourcing data with companies in foreign jurisdictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The range of cyber-defense tools available to Supo is expected to improve markedly when the Finnish parliament, the Eduskunta, passes new legislation in the second half of 2018. That will give national intelligence agencies greater powers to operate against \u201cbad actors\u201d in the cyber domain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the present time we have no access to data networks. This means our capability to detect cyber crimes is completely inadequate. The proposed intelligence legislation will deliver an improvement to this situation,\u201d said Pelttari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The constant risk of cyberattacks has resulted in Supo retaining the terrorism threat level against the country at \u201celevated\u201d. This assessment is based on the expectation of future cyber and possibly land-based attacks from ISIS, or groups or persons affiliated to the terrorist organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The threat of ISIS combatants returning to Finland from Syria and Iraq remains, Pelttari said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur assessment is that ISIS remains a threat. Despite recent losses, it also has the capability to generate and widely disseminate damaging propaganda here,\u201d Pelttari said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposed law, when enacted, will give Supo and military intelligence agencies the authority to intercept confidential communications, hack messaging services and break encryption codes in order to read the contents of messages between persons deemed a potential threat to Finland\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Supo has ranked terrorism-linked cyber-threats as the primary risk to Finland\u2019s national security and critical industrial infrastructure going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["europe","global","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"europe"}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3322],"class_list":["post-19042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"J3O6ZMJZBVD47GLL427LCFVFOU","arc_canonical_url":"\/international\/2018\/03\/26\/finlands-top-national-security-risk-cyber\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n