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Finnish funding company's database attacked: media

Xinhua, March 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Alleged hackers, IT professionals at a computer company based here, were able to break into a Finnish funding company's database, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to information obtained by Finnish tabloid Iltalehti, the presumed hackers gained access to up to 20,000 company's strategy and financial secrets and confidential information through the Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes).

The police are investigating the incident as an 'exceptionally serious' case of information hacking. Three persons are suspected of having carried out the cyber attack, of which two have been detained by police.

Iltalehti reported that when the supposed hackers planned to apply for funding from Tekes, they found security weaknesses in the agency's online system. The three men decided to examine the matter themselves. During the testing, they successfully downloaded the full database of Tekes, which contains strategic and finance-related secrets from about 20,000 companies, said Iltalehti.

Two days after they informed Tekes of the system faults, two of them were arrested and the third was put on a wanted list by police.

The Helsinki police department confirmed that it received the investigation request from Tekes one week ago, and that it is investigating the case as aggravated fraud.

However, Tekes tried to cool down the seriousness of its security flaws. Pekka Soini, director of Tekes, told Finnish national broadcaster Yle that the leaked database does not contain top-secret information.

Soini admitted that there was a flaw in the application service, but he claimed that it had been fixed, Yle reported.

Founded in 1983, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), which works under the Ministry of Employment and Economy, is the most important public funding agency for financing research, development, and innovation in Finland. Endit