EU NIS2 in Finland

Current status

The Finnish NIS2 implementation law is expected to come into force on October 18, 2024. NIS2 implementation is being driven nationally by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Liikenne- ja viestintäministeri (LVM), in close cooperation with a working group of the Ministry of Finance (VM) for public sector matters.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) is responsible for implementing the Finnish Cybersecurity Act and has published a guideline document on the risk management measures defined in the draft law.

On May 23, the Finnish Government submitted a proposal of the draft law to the parliament. Previously, a draft version from October underwent a two-month consultation period until the end of November 2023.

National NIS2 differences

The Finnish Cybersecurity Act sets out general obligations that affect both essential and important entities. In principle, the obligations and deadlines for essential and important entities are the same.

• Entities: The Finnish draft law does not distinguish between essential and important entities. Consequently, the defined obligations and transition periods are in principle the same for all companies regardless of their size.
• Transition period for registration: Affected companies must register by December 31, 2024.
• Lack of regular audits: The draft law does not oblige entities to conduct audits or self-assessments. However, according to §30, the Ministry of Transport and Communications is authorized to require operators to conduct an audit focused on cyber security risk management, given that the company experienced a significant incident, violated the obligations or neglected to implement the cybersecurity risk management model of §8.
• Extensive legislative changes: The Finnish NIS2 implementation amends a number of other laws. The main affected laws are:
  • Act on Information Management in Public Administration (Laki julkisen hallinnon tiedonhallinnasta)
  • Act on Electronic Communications Services (Laki sähköisen viestinnän palveluista)
  Some sector-specific regulations, which were integrated into special laws for the implementation of the NIS Directive, are partially repealed. These include certain paragraphs in the Aviation Act (ilmailulain), the Railway Traffic Act (raideliikennelain), and the Vessel Traffic Services Act (alusliikennepalvelulain).

Entities

The Finnish draft law affects all companies exceeding the thresholds for medium-sized enterprises as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC §3. Additionally, companies may also be affected regardless of their size §4.

Unlike the EU NIS2 Directive, which distinguishes between essential and important entities, the Finnish NIS2 implementation refers to all affected parties uniformly as operators. This singular classification diverges from EU NIS2 by consolidating affected entities into one category:

• Operators based on company size in NIS sectors 1 2
  • Companies with ≥ 50 FTE or
  • Companies with > 10m EUR yearly revenue and balance > 10m EUR
  • Size-independent: qTSP, TLD, DNS, telco, critical facilities
  • Size-independent for special reasons: critical societal or economic functions, significant impact on public safety, significant systemic risk, particular importance for the sector

The draft law also explicitly outlines scenarios for operators not subject to its provisions: §4

• Operators solely providing services for national security, defense, public order and safety, or criminal prosecution
• Operators providing services in Annex 1 and 2 only on an occasional basis

Sectors

Finland aligns it sector definitions closely with EU NIS2. Sector definitions for public administration, banking, and financial market infrastructures are missing in the draft of the Cybersecurity Act. Finland does not introduce any additional sectors.

In Finland, supervising authorities are assigned on a per-service basis. Therefore, it is possible that a sector has multiple supervising authorities.

Annex I Sectors

Annex II Sectors

Security

Risk Management

The Finnish Cybersecurity Act defines risk management-related obligations that closely align with EU NIS2. These obligations are defined in §9, where §9 outlines 13 high-level risk management requirements.

Operators are required to identify, assess and manage risks that may affect the communication networks and information systems used in their operations. The risk management measures must be timely, proportionate and adequate §7 and include: §9

• scope of the operations
• foreseeable impacts of an incident
• risk exposure of the communication networks and information systems
• likelihood and severity of incidents, costs of the measures
• available technical possibilities to counter threats
• considering current developments

Operators must establish and maintain an up-to-date cybersecurity risk management policy, as stipulated in §8. This policy should adopt an all-hazards approach, addressing the protection of communication networks, information systems, and the physical environment. The policy must explicitly define the objectives, procedures, and responsibilities related to cybersecurity risks as well as technical, operational, and organizational control measures.

The Cybersecurity Act defines 12 risk management measures in §9 which closely align with EU NIS2. The §8-policy must contain technical, operational, or organizational control measures incorporating the following risk management measures of §9:

• Risk management principles and control measures effectiveness
• Communication networks and information systems security
• Procurement, development, and maintenance security; vulnerability handling
• Supplier product/service quality, resilience, and cybersecurity practices
• Asset management and critical security functions identification
• Personnel security and cybersecurity training
• and more

Supervisory authorities can introduce further regulations to specify risk management obligations within their sectors.

Security measures

Traficom has released a draft document that outlines guidelines for implementing the risk management measures detailed in §8. Each section of this document offers guidance on one of the 13 risk management requirements in §8 by detailing:

• Implementation examples: Guidance on implementing the recommendation based on aspects like company size, industry or typical threats. The necessary measures can vary significantly from the implementation examples
• Verification: Verification methods a supervisory authority might use to assess the implemented measures. Supervision can be based on documentation or self-assessments (category 1), interviews, configuration reviews or similar evidence (category 2), as well as different programs and tools to interpret technical data, including various scans (category 3)
• Justifications: Justifies for the measure and describes intended goals. This can form a basis for discussions between supervisory authority and operator
• References: Standards, frameworks, guidelines for additional information or descriptions of commonly used implementations
• Tools: tools used by supervisory authority for supervisory activities. Tools are also available for operators to measure the maturity level

Information and authorities

Registration

The registration obligations are closely aligned with EU NIS2. Operators are required to notify their supervisory authority of the typical details like contact information, IP address ranges, the relevant sector and more §41.

Affected operators must register until December 31, 2024 §47. Changes to this data must be reported within two weeks.

Special types of operators must register more data §41. This includes providers of DNS services, cloud services, online marketplaces and more. This includes details about the principal business address and other legal establishments within the EU. Changes to additional data must be reported to the supervisory authority within three weeks.

Reporting

The reporting obligations are closely aligned with EU NIS2. Operators must notify their supervisory authority of significant incidents through a series of notifications:

• Initial notification within 24 hours of detecting the incident §11
• Follow-up notification within 72 hours of detecting the incident §11
• Final report within 1 month after the follow-up notification or upon concluding incident §13
• Progress report on request or after one month if the incident is ongoing §12

The definition of a significant incident and the required notification contents and are closely aligned with EU NIS2. §11-13

Supervisory authorities are empowered to issue more detailed regulations regarding the content, technical format, and procedures for notifications within their supervisory scope §11.

Sanctions

The draft law defines the sanctions in §§35 - 40.

§35 defines administrative offenses for which sanctions can be imposed if the operator fails to:

• Manage risks §7, establish cybersecurity risk management framework §8, consider elements in §9(1)
• Implement measures in §9(2)
• Submit incident notification §11, interim report §12, final report §13 to supervisory authority
• Provide information required under §41 to supervisory authority

The draft law also introduces a comprehensive procedure for imposing administrative fines, including the establishment of a penalty fee board within the Ministry of Transport and Communications, as specified in §36.

The Finnish implementation of NIS2 aligns the penalty amounts with those outlined in EU NIS2 §38:

• 10m EUR or 2% of the total annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year for essential entities
• 7m EUR or 1,4% of the total annual worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year for any other operators

Audits

Audit obligations in Finland are expected to be different in comparison with other EU Member States. The current draft law does not mandate self-assessments or regular audits §30.

However, supervisory authorities can require an operator to conduct a security audit focused on cyber security risk management, given that the operator:

• Significant incident causing serious service disruption or substantial damage
• Serious violation of legal obligations
• Neglected to implement cybersecurity risk management model (§8)

Supervisory authorities have the right to obtain information on the results of the conducted security audit and may require an entity to implement reasonable and proportionate measures.

Sources

1. 
   NIS2 Implementation Draft in Finnish, Finnish Government website, May 23, 2024
2. FAQ on NIS2 in Finland with Supervisory Authorities by Sector, Traficom website, July 22, 2024
3. Overview of NIS2 Implementation Progress, Finnish Government website, November 29, 2023
4. Project Progress of the NIS2 Working Group, Finnish Government website, October 09, 2023
5. Press Release on the Publication of the Government Proposal for NIS2 Implementation, Finnish Government website, June 06, 2024
6. Traficom Guidelines on NIS2 Cybersecurity Risk Management Measures, Finnish Consultation Service website