We often hear about cyberattacks being launched against a country, the U.S. and China have been bickering about this for quite some time, and only recently Israel saw a major tunnel being blocked due to a cyberattack. A private Finnish broadcaster, MTV3, reported that Finland’s government data network had been hit by large-scale hacking. After the report was aired, the government arranged a press conference to confirm that a “sever and large” hack had breached the Foreign Ministry’s data network.
Finland’s foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja, confirmed that the breach was discovered in spring 2013, and that the country’s intelligence service is investigating the hack as they believe its a “serious espionage” case. Tuomioja didn’t say who the government suspects to have carried out this hack. However, MTV3 previously reported, citing sources, that intelligence agents hailing from China and Russia might be involved. It further added that the hackers had access to the foreign ministry’s network for years, and that they targeted classified communications between officials of Finland and the European Union. Tuomioja assured during the press conference that there has been no exposure of the most highly classified information. Both Russia and China have previously been accused to state-sponsored hacking in the past, particularly by the U.S. and other Western countries, but so far both countries have denied ever having any direct involvement in the cyberattacks.
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