Police halt investigation into trade secret dispute between cybersecurity companies – no evidence of crime
Helsinki police found no evidence of trade secret theft in the dispute between FusionID and Nixu. The preliminary investigation ended without results in September.
Home searches and arrests – but police found no crime in cybersecurity companies' dispute
Helsinki police conducted home searches, seized equipment and detained two men for more than 24 hours – yet the investigation still ended without results. Ess.fi reported that the prosecutor decided to close the preliminary investigation in September due to lack of evidence in the trade secret dispute between two Finnish cybersecurity companies, FusionID and Nixu.
Nixu, which is now part of the international DNV Cyber, filed a police investigation request last autumn. The company suspected that its former employees had moved to the newly founded FusionID and were exploiting there trade secrets and technical guidelines stolen from Nixu.
According to Nixu, one of the former employees had downloaded files from the company's systems in the final days of his employment, files containing trade secrets. A large portion of the files were related to a customer for whom FusionID later prepared a proposal – a proposal that, according to Nixu, was strikingly similar in content to its own previous proposal.
In November 2025, police arrested two men working at FusionID and conducted searches at their homes, seizing their phones and computers. However, the equipment searches did not reveal concrete evidence that Nixu's trade secrets had been used or attempted to be used in FusionID's operations.
According to police assessment, the employees who had transferred from Nixu possessed substantial expertise and experience acquired in their previous employment, which gave FusionID a competitive advantage and enabled it to enter the market relatively quickly. Police also noted that the investigation did not establish that FusionID would have even needed Nixu's trade secrets or technical guidelines for its operations.
FusionID has denied Nixu's allegations as unfounded and regarded them as an attempt to hinder a new competitor's market entry. Both companies operate in the same field and provide IAM systems, that is, identity access management services.
Parallel to the criminal investigation, the dispute has also been handled in the Market Court, which specialises in trade secret and competition matters. Following a hearing held in early October, the Market Court has not yet issued its ruling in the matter.
Source: Google News FI — Crime (fi)