Helsinki, Finland (CNN) The confidential records of thousands of psychotherapy patients in Finland have been hacked and some are now facing the threat of blackmail.
Authorities are working to track down those patients who received emails threatening to disclose personal information unless the recipient pays the blackmailer. Some of the records have already leaked online.
Finnish police are working with other agencies to investigate the data breach that targeted Vastaamo, the country’s largest private psychotherapy center, which treats roughly 40,000 patients across the country. ![Ransomeware]()
“We are grateful for how various actors in society have helped the police,” said Marko Leponen, a detective inspector at Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation. “It is particularly great that citizens are urging all not to share this material on social media. Sharing such information fulfills the essential elements of an offence,” he added.
Some of the victims have received emails demanding payments in bitcoin to prevent the public disclosure of their personal information, which authorities are discouraging victims from doing. Instead, agencies are asking those patients to save extortion emails and other possible evidence they may have received and file a police report. Police have also discouraged people from paying the hackers, saying it will not ensure their data remains private.
The country’s president Sauli Niinistö told Yle News on Sunday that the breach was “relentlessly cruel.” “We all have our inner personality that we want to protect. Now it has been violated,” he said. Vastaamo said it has started an internal inquiry into the matter and admitted on its website Monday that its patient database was first accessed by hackers back in November 2018. The company said security flaws continued to persist until March 2019.
The company also announced Monday it had fired its CEO, Ville Tapio, after it was discovered he concealed a breach from the company’s board and parent company.
Tapio said he did not know about the initial data breach back in November 2018, in a statement released Monday evening on his Facebook page. Finland’s transport and communications agency, Traficom, said on Monday it has worked with other public authorities to set up a website to help the victims.
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