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

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

Education officials are worried that students are spending too long on high school studies. The Ministry of Education is considering new laws to pressure schools to encourage students to graduate earlier.

Under the proposals, municipalities might be penalised and lose out on education funding, if students stay in high school for more than three years.

The Finnish education has always confused me, especially the fact that so many students seem to spend nearly a decade getting a degree and they aren’t even becoming a doctor or teacher.

What makes staying at school so attractive to so many students? Do they get substantial interest free loans or are they sleeping with the lecturers? Perhaps if they remain classified as students it keeps Finland’s unemployment figures down.