HELSINKI, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A Finnish cybersecurity expert has warned that Europe's growing reliance on U.S. technology could carry two kinds of risks -- mounting costs and strategic vulnerability, Finland's national broadcaster Yle reported.

In an interview with Yle on Monday, cybersecurity expert Petteri Jarvinen said it was "odd" that Europe is boosting its defense posture while leaving critical information systems heavily dependent on American companies.

"If we in Europe always choose the cheapest information technology (IT) options, we will lose this game. We must develop our expertise and services and be prepared to pay for them," he was quoted as saying.

Yle noted that Finland's dependence on U.S. technology remains substantial. As early as last year, three major Finnish government agencies announced plans to move citizens' data to U.S.-based cloud services. In November, Yle reported that Kela, Finland's social insurance institution, was transferring health-related data to American data centers.

At the same time, the Ministry of Justice is moving Finland's election data from domestic provider Tieto to Amazon's cloud service, according to Yle. Residents' tax data is also set to be migrated to Microsoft's Azure cloud. Yle said the reforms are scheduled to take effect by 2027.

Jarvinen argued that the immediate appeal of lower-priced services can mask longer-term economic exposure. With few European alternatives, governments and institutions can become locked in to a small number of providers, giving the companies greater leverage to raise prices, he said.

"American giants can raise prices however they like. Microsoft announced that prices will be raised by 10 percent to 20 percent this year. Therefore, it would be good to have an alternative to Microsoft," he noted.

Beyond cost, Jarvinen said dependence also creates security and sovereignty risks, because digital infrastructure is ultimately built on trust. He told Yle that U.S. legislation can override commercial arrangements if data is deemed relevant to national security or foreign policy.

He added that U.S. firms also dominate many of the platforms and tools used by Finns to communicate, including Gmail, WhatsApp, Meet, Teams, Facebook and X, reinforcing Europe's exposure not only in data storage but also in everyday communications.

In another Yle report earlier this month, Jarvinen warned that the United States could, in effect, cut Finland off from key internet-enabled services within an hour. He said roughly 70 percent of the cloud services used in Europe are provided by U.S. technology firms such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

"Finland would certainly grind to a halt if the U.S. could shut everything down with some kind of executive order," he was quoted as saying.

Yle said losing access to U.S.-based cloud services could disrupt "every sector of society," from public administration to healthcare. Jarvinen added that such a scenario could, technologically, set Europe back to the 1990s.

As a response, he urged Europe and Finland to strengthen technological self-sufficiency. Yle noted that similar concerns have been voiced elsewhere, including in Sweden, where local media editorial argued that the United States could "shut down Sweden in an hour." ■