Exclusive Finnish utility Fortum’s energy assets are targeted by surveillance and cyber attacks By Reuters

By Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s biggest electricity company Fortum has experienced satellite disruption, spotted drones and suspicious people around its power assets and been targeted by daily denial-of-service attacks, its chief executive said. executive for Reuters.

“There are different types of cyber attack attempts or cyber security breach attempts against us every day, and then less often, drones and different types of suspicious movements around our assets,” Markus Rauramo said, adding that satellite connections of power plants were disrupted earlier. year.

Rauramo said Fortum, which has hydro, wind, solar, nuclear and combined heat and power (CHP) plants, has asked Finnish authorities to investigate the incidents.

He added that the situation is broadly similar to Fortum’s Swedish assets.

Finland’s security and intelligence service Supo and the Finnish police declined to comment directly on the cyber attacks or who might be behind them. The Swedish intelligence service Sapo also declined to comment on specific incidents or targets.

Rauramo said Fortum has taken extensive precautions to mitigate cyber attacks, including strict access control, private security services, backup systems and drills with authorities.

“There has been an increase in the frequency (of incidents) as also reported by the authorities. The numbers are increasing, but the impact on our operations is very small,” said Fortum’s head of security, Jari Stenius.

Finland’s National Investigation Bureau KRP told Reuters that police have several open investigations into incidents near critical infrastructure.