Finnish organisations facing increased cyberattacks after NATO accession

The Finnish government reported that since Finland recently joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), domestic organizations have been increasingly targeted with cyberattacks.

The Cyber Security Center of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency has seen a growing interest in Finnish networks and organisations from various sources. However, the government specifically called out Russia as the source of the recent increase in cyber activity, writing, ‘Russian cyber operations against Finland have also become more frequent because Russia has been forced to turn to the cyber environment as its human intelligence operations have become more difficult.’

Last autumn, Finnish intelligence assessed that the threat to Finland’s critical infrastructure from Russian cyberattacks has increased. The director of the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service, Antti Pelttari, stated that Russia is unlikely to paralyse Finland’s critical infrastructure in the short term as it would mean a new escalation. However, Finnish companies may be of interest to Russia as the country lose access to Western markets, making it more interested in obtaining product development information, Pelttari noted.