Wärtsilä accidentally exposes email addresses of nearly 500 job applicants

The Finnish technology group Wärtsilä mistakenly sent an email revealing the addresses of almost 500 summer job applicants to other candidates, the company confirmed in a statement to public broadcaster Yle on Monday.

The data breach occurred when the email addresses, meant to be hidden in the blind carbon copy (bcc) field, were instead placed in the visible recipient field due to human error, according to Wärtsilä’s communications team.

The company stated that the incident does not align with its standard procedures and that measures are being taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future. “We take this matter extremely seriously and sincerely apologise for the mistake,” the statement read.

Wärtsilä has contacted the affected recipients and reported the breach to Finland’s data protection ombudsman.