Police probing Vastaamo data hacking

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is investigating the large-scale data hacking of the psychotherapy centre Vastaamo.

The police are now investigating the incident as aggravated burglary, aggravated blackmail, and dissemination of aggravated invasion of privacy, said the NBI in a press release on Sunday.

“This is an exceptional hacking in the Finnish perspective, as the hacked materials disseminated online by the hackers are very sensitive. There are various perspectives of the lines of investigation, and the police are doing their best to find out about the crime,” said NBI Director of Investigation and Crime Marko Leponen.

The police recorded about thousands of allegations from the victims where the hackers sent emails to the individuals directly and demanded money. The hackers also threatened people to disclose the sensitive information, if their demand is not fulfilled.

The privately operated psychotherapy centre Vastaamo on Wednesday announced that sensitive information about its clients was leaked after its database was hacked recently.

The company also said that the hackers who stole the data are trying to extort money from the patients, if they want to get their data back.

Vastaamo also said that the extortionists were demanding about half a million euros for returning the stolen data.

The company said the first breach of data took place in November 2018, while the second phase of breaching took place in between November 2018 and March 2019.

They have already published the information of about 300 people online by this time.

Meanwhile, President Sauli Niinistö on Sunday termed the psychotherapy centre’s data breach as an especially cruel crime, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

“Data is continually gathered from all of us across different platforms. It also affects us as we all have our own inner self that we want to protect. Now it is hurt,” the Yle report quoted the president as saying.