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

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

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