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‘Spy’ PC at Swedish airport managed check in

A computer found hidden at Jönköping Airport in central Sweden in a case of suspected industrial espionage has been found to have been part of routine cooperation between the IT department and an airline.

Published: 16 February 2011 17:49 CET
Updated: 17 February 2011 09:32 CET

'Spy' PC at Swedish airport managed check in

The computer was discovered three weeks ago by a member of staff connected to the airport’s intranet. Both the airport management and the police suspected a case of industrial espionage and launched an investigation.

“Someone obviously thinks that this airport is very exciting,” said Peter Jutterström of the airport’s board to the local Jönköpings-Posten newspaper on Wednesday.

The computer, which was connected to Jönköping Airport’s internal network, was discovered by a member of staff a couple of weeks ago and it was feared that sensitive information had been transferred to a third party.

But it has now been established that the suspected “spy” PC was in fact a routine cooperation between the airport’s IT department and local airline Flyglinjen.

The computer was deployed to manage the airline’s check in screens.

The Swedish Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen, Säpo) were reported on Wednesday to monitoring the situation, but the investigation was conducted by Jönköping police.

“We remain informed, but there is nothing here that falls within our jurisdiction,” Sirpa Franzén, press officer at Säpo, told the TT news agency on Wednesday.

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Germany arrests Russian scientist for spying for Moscow

Vladimir Putin. Photo: dpa/AP | Patrick Semansky

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the suspect, identified only as Ilnur N., had been taken into custody on Friday on suspicion of “working for a Russian secret service since early October 2020 at the latest”.

Ilnur N. was employed until the time of his arrest as a research assistant for a natural sciences and technology department at the unnamed German university.

German investigators believe he met at least three times with a member of Russian intelligence between October 2020 and this month. On two occasions he allegedly “passed on information from the university’s domain”.

He is suspected of accepting cash in exchange for his services.

German authorities searched his home and workplace in the course of the arrest.

The suspect appeared before a judge on Saturday who remanded him in custody.

‘Completely unacceptable’

Neither the German nor the Russian government made any immediate comment on the case.

However Moscow is at loggerheads with a number of Western capitals after a Russian troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders and a series of espionage scandals that have resulted in diplomatic expulsions.

Italy this month said it had created a national cybersecurity agency following warnings by Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Europe needed to
protect itself from Russian “interference”.

The move came after an Italian navy captain was caught red-handed by police while selling confidential military documents leaked from his computer to a Russian embassy official.

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The leaders of nine eastern European nations last month condemned what they termed Russian “aggressive acts” citing operations in Ukraine and “sabotage” allegedly targeted at the Czech Republic.

Several central and eastern European countries have expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity with Prague but Russia has branded accusations of its involvement as “absurd” and responded with tit-for-tat expulsions.

The latest espionage case also comes at a time of highly strained relations between Russia and Germany on a number of fronts including the ongoing detention of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who received treatment in Berlin after a near-fatal poisoning.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has moreover worked to maintain a sanctions regime over Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the scene of ongoing fighting between pro-Russia separatists and local forces.

And Germany has repeatedly accused Russia of cyberattacks on its soil.

The most high-profile incident blamed on Russian hackers to date was a cyberattack in 2015 that completely paralysed the computer network of the Bundestag lower house of parliament, forcing the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

German prosecutors in February filed espionage charges against a German man suspected of having passed the floor plans of parliament to Russian secret services in 2017.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas last week said Germany was expecting to be the target of Russian disinformation in the run-up to its general election in September, calling it “completely unacceptable”.

Russia denies being behind such activities.

Despite international criticism, Berlin has forged ahead with plans to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, set to double natural gas supplies from Russia to Germany.

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