Helsinki: Finnish police said Tuesday that a suspected data breach into a government IT service provider in late January was being investigated as espionage.
A suspected breach in the mobile device management service provided by the Government ICT Centre Valtori at the end of January may have involved approximately 50,000 users of the government's shared information and communication technology services, Valtori reported in February.
It was initially investigated as a case of aggravated data breach, but police said that they now had "a clearer picture" of the stolen data, which had led them to also look into suspected espionage.
"The nature of the information in itself has not changed from what was originally reported," Detective Chief Inspector Aku Limnell of the National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, explaining it consisted mostly of configuration details and user information.
"However, it is possible that by combining the information contained in the data, one could generate information that affects Finland's security and may cause it harm," Limnell said.
According to Limnell, the suspicion of espionage arose during the investigation based on the "entirety" of the compromised data, rather than a potential suspect.
He added that police were working "in close cooperation with authorities both nationally and internationally".
