Laundry Bear poses a serious cyber espionage threat to organisations in public administration, critical infrastructure and the defence sector, says Supo.Supo headquarters in Helsinki's Kaartinkaupunki district. Image: Silja Viitala / YleYle News13:04The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) has issued several warnings recently about cyber espionage efforts directed at Finland by Russia and other authoritarian states.On Friday, Supo teamed up with the Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency and the US National Security Agency (NSA) to issue an advisory about a Russian state-sponsored cyber threat actor that targets organisational email systems.Earlier this month, Supo warned Finnish firms about a Russian cyber-espionage campaign targeting vulnerable network devices."Serious cyber espionage threat" from Laundry BearOn Friday, intelligence authorities said that companies and organisations should be aware of a lesser-known Russian cyber threat actor known as Laundry Bear.Authorities said that Laundry Bear poses a serious cyber espionage threat especially to organisations in public administration, critical infrastructure and the defence sector.Laundry Bear has targeted a wide range of victims, including military industry operators, state administration and other authorities, technology companies and third sector operators, Supo said in a statement.Russian human intelligence weakened since 2022Its main targets have been Nato countries – including Finland – as well as Ukraine."Laundry Bear has primarily attempted to break into the email systems of the targeted organisation, often using simple but effective methods such as social manipulation (e.g. impersonation) and stolen user IDs," Supo explained.Russian human intelligence efforts in the West have been undercut by the expulsions of Russian intelligence officers since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine nearly four and a half years ago.As a result, Russia has been forced to increasingly resort to cyber methods in its espionage activity, the spy agency said.