Today at 14:39
Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) has issued several warnings about cyber-espionage attacks against Finland by Russia and other authoritarian states. This was reported by Yle, UATV English informs.
On Friday, Supo, together with the Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency and the US National Security Agency (NSA), published a warning about a Russian state cyber-espionage group targeting the email systems of organizations.
According to Supo, the group Laundry Bear poses a serious cyber-espionage threat to organizations in public administration, critical infrastructure, and the defense sector.
Supo’s statement says that Laundry Bear has targeted a wide range of victims, including military industry operators, state administration and other government bodies, technology companies, and public sector contractors.
“Laundry Bear primarily attempts to compromise organizations’ email systems, often using simple but effective methods such as social engineering (for example, impersonating another person) and stealing user credentials,” Supo explained.
It is noted that Russia’s human intelligence efforts in the West have been undermined following the expulsion of Russian intelligence officers since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Russia has been forced to increasingly resort to cyber methods in its espionage activities, Finland’s intelligence agency stated.
As previously reported, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) assesses the threat of Russian espionage and sabotage against defense companies as high, especially those cooperating with Ukraine.
