The best energy utility in Finland, targeted by daily cyber attacks

Fortum, Finland’s largest electricity company, is under daily attempted cyber attacks and cyber breaches, while suspicious persons and drone activity have been detected near its energy assets, CEO Markus Rauramo told Reuters .

“There are different types of cyber attack attempts, or cyber security breach attempts, against us on a daily basis, and then less often, drones and different types of suspicious movements around our assets,” Rauramo said.

Satellite connections have also been disrupted in recent months.

The company has asked Finnish authorities to investigate the cyber and satellite disruption incidents, the executive said.

There have been similar incidents at Fortum’s energy assets in Sweden, Rauramo told Reuters.

So far, there has been no major impact on the company’s operations, according to Jari Stenius, head of security at Fortum.

“There has been an increase in the frequency (of incidents) as the authorities are also reporting. The numbers are increasing, but the impact on our operations is very small,” Stenius told Reuters.

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters that Finnish police had opened several separate investigations into the incidents near the critical infrastructure.

Fortum generates electricity in the Nordic countries from hydropower, wind power, solar power, nuclear power and combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Last year, a total of 98 percent of the company’s electricity production was carbon dioxide-free, Fortum says.

Last month, Fortum announced it had successfully started using nuclear fuel from US-based Westinghouse Electric as it seeks to replace Russian supply. For years, Fortum’s Loviisa power plant in Finland has sourced its nuclear fuel from TVEL, a subsidiary of the Russian company Rosatom. However, Fortum began hunting for a new source of fuel two years ago after Russia invaded Ukraine. The new fuel includes uranium, fuel assemblies and also the enrichment process from western sources. Fortum’s two nuclear reactors in Loviisa account for around 10% of Finland’s total energy production.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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