A company that offers psychological support and psychotherapy services to thousands of patients in Finland has been hacked. The companythe attackers are holding patients' information as collateral to ensure they receive the ransom they have demanded.
Vastaamo , which serves patients in 20 cities, including Helsinki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Pori, Turku and Tampere, says unknown malicious actors contacted the company and notified them that they were in possession of its patients' personal data.
The company immediately notified authorities, including the Finnish Cybersecurity Centre, the Data Protection Ombudsman and the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health. They also contacted independent security experts to see what happened, as well as the National Bureau of Investigation, which launched an investigation into the incident.
"As a company providing psychotherapy services, the confidentiality of our clients' information is extremely important to us and the starting point for all our operations. We deeply regret the data breach," said Tuomas Kahri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vastaamo.
"We are constantly developing security and data protection and will take additional measures once the investigations are complete," he added.
Vastaamo says it has not disclosed the matter to the public or its patients until now, due to the ongoing police investigation. It is not known at this time whether the hackers still hold the patient information, whether the ransom was paid or whether the files have been recovered. There is no information on the number of patients affected by the attack, nor for how long the malicious actors had access to the company's systems. We also do not know how much the hackers demanded in ransom.
