Reports of cyber-espionage at the Finnish Foreign Ministry earlier this week have reinforced the image of cyberspace as an uncharted and unregulated wild west, where there are no commonly agreed, supervised and sanctioned rules of operation, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja wrote in his blog Saturday.
According to Tuomioja Finland will work towards international agreement on game rules to govern freedom of speech and protection of individual privacy. He speculated that creating such game rules would not – even in the best of cases – put an end to state-sanctioned spying.
“All states spy on each other – and we use rather refined language here – when resources are scarce. All states are also being spied upon,” the minister declared.
Tuomioja said that Finland was not exceptional in terms of being the subject of espionage. He said friendly nations enjoying good relations should be able to operate in full confidence that they will not engage in criminal acts against each other.
“Better protection is in any case essential, although in that respect we are reminded of anti-doping efforts in sport, where we are in a constant competition between protection and infiltration technology,” he wrote.
According to the minister cyber-security has long been a high priority in government work and a regulatory review of cyber-security issues is also in the works.