The Finnish Parliament said on Monday that a hacking group had breached internal IT systems and gained access to the email accounts of some members of Parliament.
According to government officials, the attack took place in the fall of 2020 but was discovered this month by the Parliament's IT staff. The Finnish police have already taken over the investigation into the case.
In an official statement, a senior police official said the attack did not cause damage to the Finnish Parliament's internal IT system , but it was not a random intrusion
Authorities are investigating the security at the Finnish Parliament as a “suspected espionage”.
According to the assumptions made so far about the attack, the hackers likely broke into the parliament's systems either to steal information that other states would use or to harm Finland.
“The theft has affected more than one person, but unfortunately, we cannot say the exact number until the current preliminary investigation is completed,” the officer said.
The police also said that "there is international cooperation in the investigation," but did not provide further details.
Norway had revealed a similar incident
Earlier this fall, the Norwegian Parliament revealed a similar breach of its internal email system. In that case, too, attackers managed to gain access to the email of some officials.
A few days ago, after a month-long investigation, the Norwegian Police Secret Service (PST) attributed the intrusion to the hacking group APT28. The group is said to be linked to the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU.
In a recent report , Microsoft highlighted that hackers tend to target email accounts with credential stuffing and brute-force attacks.
Source: ZDNet
