Vantage Point North

The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service SUPO was transformed into a full-blown intelligence agency when the new intelligence laws for military and civilian intelligence were passed this summer. In the new role SUPO can now engage in activities like network traffic intelligence and intelligence operations abroad. While the new powers are not yet fully utilized, SUPO's situational awareness should have improved a lot in the recent months. SUPO recruitment poster On December 5, 2019 SUPO published its annual assessment of the Finland’s security situation. It splits the Finnish security environment into four areas:            Foreign intelligence activity targeting Finland and Finns            Cyber espionage            Threat of terrorism in Finland            Hybrid threats SUPO openly states that the most active intelligence agencies oper...

Finland: Rushing Intelligence Finnish government presented a bill for the nations first law governing intelligence issues. The government is attempting to rush the law, that requires amending the constitution, as an urgent one. It’s very uncommon to rush constitutional changes in one parliamentary term. To pass, such a law has to be accepted by 5/6 of the parliament. Although Finland was famous for its ability to gather and break Soviet and Russian communications all the way from World War 2 up until the late 1990’s, there hasn’t been a law that would allow either the military or the Suojelupoliisi (Finnish counter-intelligence) to conduct online surveillance or information gathering operations abroad. Finnish signal intelligence working under Lenin’s nose The Finnish Defense Forces have been restricted to traditional signal intelligence on the radio transmissions that reach Finnish territory. These restrictions have severely hampered the Finnish intelligence community...