Exclusive-Finnish utility Fortum's power assets targeted with surveillance, cyber attacks

By Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's largest power utility Fortum has experienced satellite disturbances, spotted drones and suspicious individuals around its energy assets and been targeted with daily denial-of-service attacks, its chief executive told Reuters.

"There are different kinds of cyberattack attempts, or cyber security breach attempts, against us daily, and then less frequently, drones and different kinds of suspicious movement around our assets," Markus Rauramo said, adding power plants' satellite connections were disturbed earlier this year.

Rauramo said Fortum, which has hydro, wind, solar, nuclear and combined heat and power (CHP) plants, had asked Finnish authorities to investigate the incidents.

He added the situation was broadly similar with Fortum's Swedish assets.

Finland's Security and Intelligence Service Supo and Finnish police declined to comment on the cyberattacks directly, or who might be behind them. Swedish Intelligence Service Sapo also declined to comment on specific incidents or targets.

Rauramo said Fortum had taken extensive precautions to mitigate the cyberattacks, including strict access control, private security services, reserve systems, and drills with authorities.

"There has been an uptick in the frequency (of incidents) just as authorities are also reporting. The numbers are increasing, but the impact on our operations is very small," Fortum's head of security Jari Stenius said.

Finnish National Bureau of Investigation KRP told Reuters police have several open investigations on incidents near critical infrastructure.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto, additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)