Finland: Drones and hackers attack the national electricity company daily

Fortum, the largest electricity utility in Finland, is subjected to daily attempted cyberattacks and cyber breaches, while suspicious individuals and drone activity have been spotted near its power plants, Chief Executive Markus Rauramo told Reuters .

“Every day there are different types of attempted cyberattacks or cybersecurity breaches against us, and then, less frequently, drones and different types of suspicious movements around our facilities,” Rauramo said.
Satellite connections have also been disturbed in recent months.

The company has asked Finnish authorities to investigate cyber incidents and satellite disturbances, the CEO said. Rauramo told Reuters that similar incidents had also occurred at Fortum's power plants in Sweden.

According to Jari Stenius, head of security at Fortum, there have so far been no significant repercussions on the company's activities.
“There has been a surge in the frequency (of incidents) just when the authorities are also reporting. The number is 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 incidents near critical infrastructure.

Fortum generates electricity in the Nordic countries from hydroelectric, wind, solar, nuclear and cogeneration plants. Last year, 98% of the company's electricity generation was carbon-free.

Last month, Fortum announced it had begun successfully using nuclear fuel from US-based Westinghouse Electric in a bid to replace Russian supplies. For years, Finland's Loviisa power plant in Fortum has received its nuclear fuel from TVEL, a subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom. However, Fortum began looking for a new fuel source two years ago, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new fuel includes uranium, fuel assemblies and the enrichment process from Western sources. Fortum's two nuclear reactors in Loviisa account for around 10% of total electricity production in Finland.

The article Finland: Drones and Hackers attack the national electricity company daily comes from Economic Scenarios .

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/finlandia-droni-e-hacker-attaccano-quotidianamente-la-societa-elettrica-nazionale/ on Fri, 11 Oct 2024 09:00:30 +0000.