Finland shocked by therapy center hacking, client blackmail

By JARI TANNER
October 26, 2020

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s interior minister summoned key Cabinet members into an emergency meeting Sunday after hundreds — and possibly thousands — of patient records at a private Finnish psychotherapy center were accessed by a hacker or hackers now demanding ransoms.

Finnish Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo tweeted that authorities would “provide speedy crisis help to victims” of the security breach at the Vastaamo psychotherapy center, an incident she called “shocking and very serious.”

Vastaamo, which has branches throughout the Nordic country of 5.5 million and operates as a sub-contractor for Finland’s public health system, said its client register with intimate patient information was likely stolen during two attacks that started almost two years ago.

The first incursion probably took place in November 2018 and “it is likely that our (data) systems were penetrated also between the end of November 2018 and March 2019,” Vastaamo said in a statement late Saturday.

The center said the unknown perpetrator or perpetrators had published at least 300 patient records containing names and contact information using the anonymous Tor communication software. “The blackmailer has started to approach victims of the security breach directly with extortion letters,” it said.

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Therapy patients blackmailed for cash after clinic data breach

By Zoe Kleinman
Technology reporter

26 October 2020

Many patients of a large psychotherapy clinic in Finland have been contacted individually by a blackmailer, after their data was stolen.

The data appears to have included personal identification records and notes about what was discussed in therapy sessions.

Vastaamo is a nationwide practice with about 20 branches and thousands of patients.

The clinic has advised those affected to contact the police.

It said it believed the data had been stolen in November 2018, with a further potential breach in March 2019.

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