Citing unnamed sources, Finnish television channel MTV3 reports (Google Translate) that the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was penetrated by malware over a period of four years. The malware specifically targeted communications between Finland and the European Union. MTV3 adds that the breach was discovered earlier this year and that the Finnish government suspects Russian or Chinese intelligence agencies to be behind the breach.

Ari Uusikartan, the director general of the information and documentation division at Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, told reporters (Google Translate) that the breach appears to involve a unknown piece of malware "similar to, and more sophisticated than Red October" malware, but that it was not Red October itself.

Earlier this year, Ars reported how Red October is the “Swiss Army knife of malware.”

"According to our knowledge, never before in the history of ITSec has a cyber-espionage operation been analyzed in such deep detail, with a focus on the modules used for attack and data exfiltration." Kaspersky researchers wrote in January 2013.

The Nordic country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FI) simply pointed to Finnish media coverage on the event, noting that the Finnish Security Intelligence Service is investigating.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told Finnish media (Google Translate) that the country has informed the European Union about the attack. Finland is not, Tuomioja added, the only country affected by the hack.