The e-mail address of Finland's Embassy in Argentina has been misused

Press release 450/2006
8 November, 2006

The e-mail address of Finland's Embassy in Argentina has been misused and thousands of messages have apparently been sent in the name of the Embassy. The e-mails criticize the Uruguay government and Botnia's pulp mill project in Uruguay. Some of the messages have been written in English and aimed at Finns.

The messages have been sent from an Argentinian IP address. It is possible, however, that this Argentinian IP address has been exploited in order to conceal the origin of the message. The Embassy of Finland in Argentina has notified its partners about the matter and reported the incident on its website.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland emphasizes that its data system has not been tampered with. The sender's address has been forged - a method often used in sending junk mail.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland has put forward a request for investigation to the National Bureau of Investigation.