Finnish police widen probe into major government ICT breach to espionage

Finnish police widened their investigation Tuesday into a major data breach targeting a government ICT service provider to include suspected espionage, according to public broadcaster YLE.

The breach targeted state-owned ICT services provider Valtori in late January, the National Bureau of Investigation said.

The case was initially opened as an aggravated data breach, but authorities said further technical analysis led investigators to add suspected espionage to the scope of the probe.

Police believe data from more than 50,000 government mobile devices may have been compromised, including information linked to ministries, prosecutors and other state institutions.

Valtori said Feb. 6 that personal data such as names, work email addresses and phone numbers had been exposed, along with technical information about mobile devices and country-level location data.

At the time, Valtori Deputy Director General of ICT Support Hannu Naumanen said no emails, photos or device content had been accessed but warned the breach still posed a significant information security risk.

Police said the investigation has provided a clearer picture of the stolen data, prompting the addition of suspected espionage as an offence alongside aggravated data breach.

"The goal of the preliminary investigation is to clarify the course of events and identify the perpetrator," Detective Inspector Aku Limnell said.