Finland's Ovi

Tens of thousands of Finnish network service passwords and usernames have been leaked onto the internet. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the situation.
 
The file contains information from chat rooms and social networking sites. Bank usernames are not part of the list.

Some of the usernames and passwords are used by individuals on many different sites.

The information security company F-Secure is urging people who visit such forums to change their passwords. The Finnish National Computer Emergency Response Team Cert-fi also issued a warning on Saturday. It said that passwords should be long and contain symbols.

The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority announced on Saturday that about 80,000 Finnish network service usernames were floating around on the internet. It said Finnish usernames have never been revealed to such a wide extent in the past.

The police have asked foreign countries for assistance in finding those responsible for the leak.

Source: YLE

In order to alleviate the growing shortage of labour in certain branches in Finland, some companies have begun to use the recruitment services of advertising and communications agencies. The idea is to use consultants in order to improve the company image or to actually recruit new employees for the business.

Fazer, one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food and confectionery industry, is suffering from an acute shortage of labour. On Tuesday, the company offered bread and vacancies to passers-by at Helsinki’s Kamppi Center.

Those who were interested could complete an electronic application in a few minutes, informing Fazer of their competence.

Fazer had planned the event in cooperation with the GCI Finland communications agency. Within around 90 minutes, people on their way to work picked up a total of 2,400 sandwiches to go. For those who stopped at the stand, even other kinds of finger food were available.
The Fazer Group’s Finnish operations comprise the Fazer Amica catering services, Fazer bakeries, and the Candyking confectionery “shop-in-shop” concept. In total, they employ approximately 6,300 people.

The demand for new employees is great, particularly at Fazer Amica, as some 60 to 70 per cent of their present workforce will retire by 2015.

At present, Fazer has some 50 to 60 vacancies. The estimated number of the applications filled in at the Kamppi recruitment event was a couple of hundred. The campaign by Fazer also included an internet page, showing a woman “interviewing” an applicant, which was expected to appeal particularly to young people.

Teija Andersen, the Managing Director of Fazer Amica, believes that this is the right trend, while saying that there is still much to be done in terms of marketing. Many other Finnish companies find themselves in a similar situation, while not being willing to announce it publicly. They fear that they might be regarded as losers who are not even able to persuade people to work for them.

Nevertheless, they should recognise that they cannot leave it too long before they step in to the recruitment game: this week’s recruitment stunt may work, but sooner or later the public will tire of such things and ignore them.

In addition to public exercises using advertising and public relations firms, some companies are looking at directed searches via such online communities as Facebook or LinkedIn.

Other firms, despairing of ever finding the right people to fill vacancies from Finland, are turning their eyes abroad: professionals in the construction, metals, and HVAC trades are being sought from nearby countries, while there are efforts to secure the return of Finnish nurses from Sweden, Norway, and the UK.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Following a probe published by Helsingin Sanomat towards the end of August, Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party) wanted to clear up whether or not Thai massage parlours in Helsinki are hosting criminal activities.

The newspaper’s report suggested that sex services are freely available at all parlours offering Thai massage in Helsinki.

Based on a detailed investigation into the capital’s Thai massage businesses, the Helsinki Police Department published its own report on Tuesday, confirming that sex services are indeed generally offered at all Thai massage parlours in the city.

Moreover, the special inquiry by police implied that there are individuals behind at least some of the businesses offering Thai massage who are responsible for the operation in several localities.

However, the Helsinki Police Department did not find any evidence that would point to human trafficking or professional operation. Hence there was no reason to launch any preliminary investigations for the time being.

Chief Police Inspector Matti Rinne from the Ministry of the Interior reports that in other parts of Finland there are areas where local police departments are in fact preparing preliminary inquiries into Thai massage businesses.
According to the police, there are some 200 Thai massage parlours in Finland, 54 of them located in Helsinki.

Anne Holmlund supports the view expressed by the police that cross-administrative investigations should be launched into the operations of those parlours where evidence points to some illegal activities. Such investigations should combine the efforts of the police, the Tax Administration, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Directorate of Immigration, and the Finnish occupational safety districts.

“Such a project, conducted by public authorities, could bring us new information in order that we would possibly be able to launch a preliminary inquiry into the matter”, noted Police Commissioner Jukka Riikonen from the Helsinki Police Department. The police wish to take a role in the proceedings, but are not eager to be the main or only player.

The report indicated further that there is reason to suspect many Thai massage parlours in Finland of procurement, tax fraud, and accounting offences.
Human trafficking is not among those offences of which the Finnish Thai massage parlours are being suspected, as according to the interviews with the National Bureau of Investigation, the masseuses have been free to move from one place to another independently. Moreover, the offering of sex services has been voluntary.

“It is also worth noting that even though the official bookkeeping of the parlours show that their turnover is low, the number of such massage places is growing steadily”, says Matti Rinne.
As the results of the special investigation suggest that the businesses offering Thai massage must be profitable at least to some extent, the police are suspecting some Thai massage parlours of tax fraud and accounting offences.

When Helsingin Sanomat tested 30 Thai massage parlours in August, a receipt was given only in one place.

The Minister of the Interior is now calling for opportunities for the Thai masseuses to have alternative options to earn their living.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Nokia cuts the price of one of its top-selling phones in anticipation of the holiday shopping season.

HELSINKI — Nokia slashed this week around 15 percent off from the price of its 3G phone model E65, one of the top sales and profit generators for the world’s largest cellphone maker, market data showed on Friday.

Analysts said the price cut was deeper than usual, but they were not surprised by the timing as handset vendors are setting up their offerings for the upcoming Christmas sales season.

Nokia sold more than one million E65’s in the second quarter, making it one of the top three products for the firm. It will report July-September results on October 18, but analysts said all signs showed that good sales of the phone have continued.

Nokia said E65 price cut was part of its normal price adjustments after the phone has been on the market for more than 6 months. Its success helped to pull Nokia’s ailing enterprise unit to the black in the second quarter after years of losses.

“This is normal for any product, the price varies at different stages of the product life cycle,” said a Nokia spokeswoman.

After the price cut E65 competes in the same price category with rivals hit phones Samsung’s U600 and Sony Ericsson’s K810i.

Apple cut its iPhone price by one third just two months after it launched the phone, but later offered some rebates after phone owners’ uproar. Price cuts of up to 10 percent are normal in the industry after first few months of sales.

Nokia has also clearly lowered prices for its E61i, N73 and N73 Music phones this month, but not as sharply as E65.

“Nokia has been very aggressive with its pricing strategy during 2007,” said Ben Wood, head of research at consultancy CCS.

Source: Reuters

Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president, said in a statement Friday she had sent a message of congratulation to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for their being jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize.

The president said she was very pleased that the pioneering work had been recognised at such high a level.

“Well-being for mankind and nature go hand in hand. Sustainable development on a global scale can become a reality if we take true care of people and if we have a strong environmental awareness. There are positive signs of attitudes changing and of a stronger common will to act on climate issues”, President Halonen wrote to Mr Gore and Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (centre) said the Nobel committee had made a good choice.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, joined Mr Vanhanen in praising the award for pushing climate issues higher on the political agenda.

Source:STT

According to police statistics, young females have become increasingly violent in recent years. A growing number of under-21-year-old women and girls are being suspected of assaults in Finland.

Ten years ago the annual number of women charged with assault was 700, while the corresponding figure for 2006 was already as high as 1,300. Of all under-21-year-old suspects the proportion of girls is today 22 per cent.

Dr. Ghitta Weizmann-Henelius, a psychologist at the Vanha Vaasa state mental hospital, whose doctoral thesis in psychology dealt with violent female offenders in Finland, is predicting that the increase in the violent behaviour of girls will be seen in Finnish criminal statistics in the course of the next few years.

The use of intoxicants has also been found to increase violence among females, and today, women are frequently found guilty of similar types of aggressive behvious to those shown in men.

Currently, the proportion of violent incidents that involve a woman as the perpetrator is about 13 per cent, and similarly in homicides it is around 10 per cent of all cases. The number of women serving time in prison in Finland is roughly 250, while the total prison population in the country is around 3,500.

An increasing number of female prisoners have a history of violent criminality and personality disorders, including substance abuse, reported Weizmann-Henelius. She has examined the personality, background characteristics and life events of women guilty of violent offences, who are being kept either in prison or in a forensic psychiatric hospital.

Based on the follow-up made by Weizmann-Henelius, some 95 per cent of those offenders who had a record of previous crimes were also found guilty of further offences after the time of study. In other words, criminal acts apparently tend to accumulate on the same individuals.

The violent acts committed by women have also become more brutal, involving knives, bottles, or stones. Frequently incidents also involve more than just one perpetrator. Even motives appear to be similar to those of men, and offences are often linked with revenge and drug traffic.

Apart of substance abuse, many females guilty of violent crimes have a background of childhood problems, including the parents’ divorce or domestic violence, frequently even sexual abuse, the psychologist noted.

The study indicates further that violent female offenders are most often single or divorced and unemployed. Typically, violent female offenders often have a history of suicide attempts and psychiatric treatment.

“According to some studies, women’s violence against their live-in companions is as common as that inflicted by men on women. However, the violence used by men is often more severe”, Weizmann-Henelius concludes.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Google seems to be intent on making waves.

There’s speculation that Google could launch a Facebook-rivaling service on November 5th. Today the company announced that they’ve acquired Jaiku - the ‘what are you doing’ and presence service based in Helsinki, Finland.

Whilst there’s no mention of how much Google paid (all the terms remain confidential), it’s certainly something that’s going to weigh in the minds of rival services such as Twitter (particularly as Twitter has yet to establish its business model).

As for what’s next for Jaiku, all the founders will say is ‘Check back in a few months to see what we’ve developed.

Relevant Links: http://jaiku.com/help/google

Source: Nik Fletcher

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In Older News:

Yesterday (Oct. 10), search giant Google announced that it will be buying Jaiku, a Finnish startup company that specializes in enabling friends to keep in touch and share whatever they are doing at any given moment using mobile devices. However, the terms of the transaction were not disclosed when the deal was officially closed.

Jaiku, a Helsinki-based firm that was founded early last year is a social networking and mini-messaging service that enables people to keep track of each others; activities on-the-go using mobile devices.

The Mountain View, California-based Google believes that activity streams and mobile presence are important areas in which it can add a lot of value for its users.

Google also added that Jaiku’s technology and talented team would be a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.

As it is Google seems to be making it a priority of following Internet users as they go mobile. In fact, a while ago, it was reported that Google was busy crafting the so-called “gphone” using an open-source software platform tailored to its online services.

Besides, last month, Google acquired Zingku, a mobile social networking firm targeted mainly at teenagers and the youth.
According to Google product manager Tony Hsieh, “Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder. Living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it’s more difficult to keep track of everyone when they’re running around at warp speed. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired Jaiku.”

Following the transaction, Jaiku will continue to support its existing user base. Jaiku users would be able to invite new friends but new user registrations have been closed for the time being.

By Terhi Kinnunen

Next time you complain about waiting in a queue, spare a thought for Pavel.

He has parked his truck in a line stretching for 5 km (3 miles) — and this is a good day at the Finnish-Russian border.

Russia’s economy is booming and its hunger for new cars, televisions and machinery means the transit routes through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are clogged with trucks.

Because of this surging trans-border traffic, Finland is now as large a trading partner for Russia as the United States, but customs posts on the border are struggling to cope.

Pavel makes a return trip to Finland once a week: this time it was with a truck full of electronic equipment for Moscow.

Two weeks ago he spent 48 hours waiting to get back home. Last winter the queues stretched for more than 60 km.

While the vehicles are stuck at the border, retailers in Russia and the transport firms are losing money and local people are scared to drive on the roads with one lane blocked by trucks.

The Finns blame the Russians for the queues which are also a problem in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. “Last year we had queues on 300 days,” said Mika Poutiainen, head of Finnish customs at Vaalimaa, 186 km east of Helsinki.

Vaalimaa is Finland’s busiest border crossing to Russia, dealing with 700-800 trucks a day. Poutiainen says Finnish customs could double the amount of trucks that pass through because processing export papers takes only a couple of minutes.

“But because of the different kinds of procedures … the limit is set by the Russian side,” he said.

Russians prefer to import goods through Finland because Russian harbors near St Petersburg do not have enough unloading equipment or warehouses, and to minimize theft.

CROSSING POINTS

The amount of goods imported through Finland has doubled since 2002 to about 3 million tonnes in 2006 and Russia’s transport ministry admits its officials cannot handle the growing number of vehicles.

“Crossing points cannot manage as they are not big enough,” a ministry spokeswoman said. Finland’s transport minister says Russia could do more.

“They have promised to cut the number of officials (at the border) from seven to two. And they should also increase the number of staff,” Anu Vehvilainen said.

Russia’s relations with some of its nearest neighbors, especially from the former Soviet Union, have deteriorated lately amid mutual recriminations. Russia cut oil supplies and rail links to Estonia in a row over the relocation of a Soviet war memorial in the capital Talinn.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen, who met Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the end of September, said Russia had made decisions that would help improve border traffic but had not carried them out fully.

Earlier this month the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania called for Brussels to raise the problems at border crossings at the next EU-Russia Summit.

Latvia has queues of between 700 and 1,000 trucks regularly waiting at the two main crossing points to Russia, and processing takes between 60 and 72 hours. Last month trucks stood in a queue for more than a week in Estonia.

The situation in Latvia got so bad that in April a local region declared a state of emergency to draw central government’s attention to its infrastructure needs.

FUMES AND TRASH

People living near the border crossings are fed up with the exhaust fumes, feces and trash. “There are always bottles and cans,” said Tuomo Nurkka, who lives near the Nuijamaa border crossing in Lappeenranta, 247 km northeast of Helsinki.

“Trucks are standing in one lane and other traffic is using the other lane. It makes life interesting. It is dangerous especially in winter time and when the roads are icy.”

Poutiainen said electronic customs declaration would put an end to the queues.

“We don’t have the electronic declaration because the agreement would have to be made between the European Union and Russia, not between Finland and Russia. On the EU level we are still in talks to solve this problem.”

The Finnish government has raised the issue in the EU, minister Vehvilainen said.

However, it does not expect the problem to be solved anytime soon and has put aside 24 million euros ($34 million) to build a new waiting area for the trucks.
Source: Reuters
(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen and Tarmo Virki in Helsinki, Patrick Lannin in Riga)

Finnish literature is set to make a notable splash on the German book market in 2011. Finland is in the process of filing an official application to become the theme country of the world’s most prominent literature trade fair, the Frankfurt Book Fair, in four years’ time. Finland’s Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin (Swedish People’s Party) is likely to sign the application already this week.

“The plan is to send our letter of intention to the Frankfurt Book Fair already today or tomorrow. This is an opportunity worth seizing – especially after the organisers of the fair have practically demanded that Finland apply for the guest of honour position for 2011″, Wallin confirms.
Being the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair will be the largest-ever single effort to export Finnish culture.

As yet, no exact figures are available, but presumably Finland’s investment in the undertaking will be in the region of EUR five million. The Frankfurt Book Fair organisation has in several instances emphasised that with a EUR 4-4.5 million investment, a theme region can obtain sufficient publicity.

“It is too early to speculate about the cost of being the guest of honour. First we have to wait for an acknowledgement from Frankfurt. Obviously, at least the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry will then take part in the effort”, Wallin says.

But money alone does not guarantee success at the fair. With the smallest-ever budget of a mere EUR 1.5 million, Lithuania failed to produce a breakthrough in the international book market. But then again, so did South Korea, in spite of its whopping EUR 14.5 million investment in the fair.
According to Wallin, the undertaking would coincide perfectly with the south-western city of Turku’s turn as European Capital of Culture in 2011.

At present, around 30-40 Finnish books are translated into German each year. Should Finland succeed in becoming the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, this figure could increase many times over.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Sparkling wines, champagnes and rosé gaining in popularity
 
According to figures published on Wednesday by the National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health (STTV), sales of alcohol grew in the months from January to July of this year by just over 4 per cent, or by 3.2% when measured in terms of 100% ethanol.

Aggregate sales in Finland via Alko off-licences, stores, and at licensed restaurants and bars came to more than 26 million litres of 100% alcohol. The actual figure was over 376 million litres by volume.
Sales have increased from one record to the next for some years now.

In fact the latest figures should be seen rather as a measure of the period from January to June, as the cooler weather in July of this year actually prompted sales for the month to fall slightly. Figures for August are not yet available.
Sales of wines, champagnes, and coolers showed the strongest growth, putting on 8%. Correspondingly, sales of fortified wines and vermouths were down by almost 7.5%.

The big favourites in the early part of the year were sparkling wines and champagnes, as well as rosé and blush wines.

The surge in sales of sparkling wines began at the beginning of last year, and is thought to have been fuelled in part by the spate of 60th birthday celebrations of people in the baby-boomer generation.

This explanation probably still holds, as only a few weeks back we witnessed the largest cluster of births that took place 60 years ago.
Sales of beers and distilled items (spirits) each grew by some 3 per cent in the opening seven months of the year.

Sales of ales (rather than lagers) were up by 13 per cent on the previous year, while on the spirits side it was liqueurs that showed the greatest growth, up by 8%.

The general trend leans towards greater sales of milder drinks, but with an overall increase of such dimensions, sales of spirits also rose.
At the same time, it is believed that the year-long decline in imports by passengers (particularly from Estonia) has stopped, and hence overall Finnish consumption of alcohol has continued to increase substantially.

In the wake of the government’s decision to cut alcohol taxes - particularly on spirits - some years ago, imports declined measurably. With plans on the table for increases in alcohol duty in 2008, it remains to be seen whether imports for personal use will once again rise.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Finnish public hospitals are making preparations for coping with the planned mass resignations of care personnel affiliated with the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy).

On Tuesday, Tehy announced that it was planning to have its members resign en masse as a way of promoting their pay demands.

Under the law, in the event of a strike, a certain number of nurses can be required to stay at work to maintain basic services. Under a mass resignation there would be no such obligation. However, the tactic is not without risks: the management side would be under no obligation to rehire those who had resigned.

Tehy is convinced that a combination of solidarity among union members and the shortage of nurses in Finland are a sufficient guarantee that those taking part in the mass resignation action will not end up unemployed.
The Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) is planning to recruit substitutes and to hire private nursing services, but officials are admitting that such moves would not be enough.

“They would be marginal measures”, said Kari Nenonen, managing director of HUS on Wednesday.

MedOne, a temp agency for medical personnel, says that it would not force its nurses to work as strike breakers. According to MedOne CEO Pertti Karjalainen, his company “respects the industrial action”.

For instance, at the Kuopio University Central Hospital, Tehy has hinted at the possibility that about 200 nurses would quit their jobs. According to head physician Jorma Penttinen, about one third of the activities of the hospital would have to to shut down in such an event.
If the stoppage begins, non-urgent surgeries will be reduced and postponed, there will be more mobility within the hospitals among staff who still are at work, and doctors and practical nurses will be doing more work.

The most crucial sectors are emergency duty, paediatrics, oncology, and maternity.

“I hope that the action is over when I come to have my baby. There might be a bit of a panic if a midwife were running around in 15 delivery rooms”, says Terhi Mutka, who is in her 35th week of pregnancy, during a checkup at the Kätilöopistio Maternity Hospital in Helsinki.
Tehy has promised to limit the mass resignations to large university hospitals and central hospitals, and will not extend to municipal health centres.

Source : Helsingin Sanomat

Matti Vanhanen (centre), the Finnish prime minister, told MPs on Thursday that the government had no intention of intervening in the nurse pay row.

Speaking at question time, Mr Vanhanen added the dispute concerned the employees and the employers only and repeated that the government would not dispense extra money to help municipalities raise nurses’ pay.

The exasperated prime minister also hoped Parliament would stop fomenting expectations about a government intervention.

The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) is planning mass resignations in an effort to back its pay demands.

Source: STT

By Sharon Cotal

Three teachers who taught fifth grade at Highlands Elementary School last year have been selected by Microsoft to serve as ambassadors to a teaching forum in Helsinki, Finland.

Highland teachers Bonita DeAmicis and Cindy Hallman, and Amy Panama - now a fourth-grade teacher at Mountain View Elementary - were selected from a national pool of candidates to participate in the 2007 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum taking place Oct. 29-31.

“We are very excited about it. We’re just a little concerned about having warm clothing,” said DeAmicis, who plans to borrow some cold weather gear from her sister in Colorado.

The forum is designed to recognize and reward outstanding educators and allow them to collaborate and share their expertise. When they worked together last year, DeAmicis, Hallman and Panama incorporated the use of handheld computers, interactive whiteboards, the Internet and desktop software in a series of science stations where students worked in teams to learn about the human body.

The teachers’ use of technology in the learning process and the way they worked together to develop the stations got Microsoft’s attention.

“They liked it. They were very excited that we were able to create seamless ways to integrate technology into our teaching. But the technology was not the focus of the learning - it was used as a tool to learn about the human body,” DeAmicis said.

The trio of teachers were also one of 20 learning teams selected to attend the United States Forum, held Sept. 26-28 in Seattle. The trip took Hallman back into familiar territory.

“I grew up in Seattle, so it was fun to see my family and I enjoyed seeing Seattle again,” Hallman said.

In Seattle, the teachers experienced the teacher version of speed dating, with teams spending five minutes with one another discussing their projects.

“They called it networking, but essentially we steal ideas from each other,” Hallman said. “It was great to get ideas from teachers across the U.S. that we probably otherwise would never meet.”

Panama, at 25 the youngest of the group, said she is honored to be selected for such a prestigious event at the beginning of her career and looks forward to meeting with the teams from other countries in Helsinki.

“It’s a lot of work to prepare to go, and I’m going to miss my students, but I’m very excited to go,” Panama said. “I can only imagine the different teams we will meet there.”

At the Helsinki forum, the three local teachers will be competing with teams from 70 countries and international judges will select one winner from all the projects presented.

“It’s like a science fair for teachers,” DeAmicis said. The teachers have been working on their display, getting it ready for the international competition.

“I’m very competitive, so game’s on,” Hallman said. For Hallman, the trip to Helsinki will be kind of like a trip home.

“My grandfather was 100 percent Finnish. I never dreamed I would go to Finland, but that’s where my ancestors are from,” Hallman said.

DeAmicis plans to do some sightseeing while in Helsinki and hopes to see the Northern Lights.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to walk around the city and see some sights,” DeAmicis said.

Panama is looking forward to spending time with the two teachers she used to work with at Highlands.

“Obviously, we won an award for collaboration, so we really worked well together,” Panama said. “Mountain View has really welcomed me, but it was hard to leave.”

Source:The Signal