Cloud services featured in the Finnish agency’s recent annual report, which said their adoption can obscure the digital independence of states. Martelius said that there had been discussion in Finland about putting election information in a cloud service, but given that the Finnish election system functions “extremely well,” the idea was eventually dropped.
“The kind of information that is critical for securing national security, like for instance, election-related data, is one thing which definitely should not be handled by any foreign firm,” he said.
On European innovation, Martelius said Finland has excellent R&D in the areas of quantum and space, but, like other parts of Europe, it lacks sufficient capital.
The intelligence chief, who took up the post in 2024, questioned whether Europe could even develop European cloud services as efficient as those from U.S. hyperscalers or win the war against Russia without foreign technology.
“Currently not,” he said. “But it’s also a question of how much does Europe want to win the war by itself and how much does it want to rely still in the future on our U.S. allies’ assistance?”