Security News > 2020 > October > Hackers rummaged about in Finnish psychotherapy clinic – now patients extorted with public data dump threats
A Finnish psychotherapy centre was hit by hackers who stole therapy session notes - before threatening patients of the clinic with ransom demands amid selective dark web leaks of stolen material.
"Psychotherapy Center Vastaamo has been the victim of data breaches and blackmail," said the Helsinki-based clinical chain late last week, adding: "In recent days, the blackmailer has published sections of the information he obtained during the hacking. Now the blackmailer has begun to approach the victims of the breach with blackmail letters demanding a ransom."
The statement continued: "We do not know that the database was stolen in this context, but it is possible that individual data was viewed or copied during that period," explaining that while local admins could tell that a customer database had been accessed by the criminals, they couldn't tell precisely whose data had been stolen.
Highly unusual ransom case underway here in Finland: a private psychotherapy clinic was hacked, and the therapist notes for maybe even 40,000 patients were stolen.
A crisis hotline was made available for victims of personal extortion attempts to access support and therapy, while the local authorities - including Finland's equivalent of the National Cyber Security Centre and the country's data protection body, investigate the hack.