Polar, the Finnish manufacturer of sports training devices, has received numerous reports of GPS problems from its smartwatch users.
Last week, smartwatch user Teija Larikka went skiing near her home in Kajaani in eastern Finland, but her Polar smartwatch reported that she’d skied hundreds of kilometres further east, near Lake Ladoga in the northwest of Russia.
Polar reported receiving dozens of similar accounts last week, but director Justin Chacona told Yle that the company is not currently aware of the reasons behind the user-reported issues.
GPS service disruptions have also been recorded by aircraft. Service disruptions in eastern and central Finland have caused issues for flight traffic, leading to problems for some aircraft as they attempted to land. A large amount of flight traffic is dependent on GPS, as many older radio control towers have been dismantled.
Assistant Professor Laura Ruotsalainen of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki told Helsingin Sanomat that the disruptions are likely being caused by the Russian state.
Kimmo Halunen, a professor of cybersecurity at Oulu University and the Finnish National Defence University, added that the recent reports of GPS disruption are an indication of current weaknesses in Finland's digital systems.
Halunen said that disrupting the signal is relatively easy and cheap, but requires robust equipment, adding that GPS disruption should not cause cybersecurity issues for private citizens.
The Finnish Transport and Communications agency Traficom issued a statement on Twitter on Wednesday evening, stating that GPS issues were still being reported in northern Finland.