It was only recently that the Finnish Parliament’s security staff learnt that it had been the target of a cyberattack in the autumn of 2020.

Threat actors operating in other states are typically responsible for hacking into government institutions; this is particularly true when the penetration goes unnoticed and the hackers appear to be only interested in monitoring.

The inquiry was taken over by Commissioner Tero Muurman of the Finland Central Criminal Police, who sought to determine how the incident might have occurred. The Commissioner did not provide any information, however multiple members of the Finnish Parliament were impacted.

Muurman declared, “This was not an accident.” One possibility at this point is that unidentified parties have used hacking to gain information, either to Finland’s detriment or to the advantage of a foreign power. Sadly, we are unable to determine the precise number of victims of the burglary without endangering the ongoing preliminary inquiry.

The Finnish Parliament’s official statement is equally vague and devoid of specifics. They do admit that some email accounts, including some MPs’, have been compromised.

This would be intriguing on its own, but in the autumn of 2020, authorities in Norway discovered that they were the target of APT28, a group also known as Fancy Bear. The hackers are connected to the General Staff of the Russian Federation’s Armed Forces’ foreign military intelligence organisation, GRU.