Vastaamo CEO sacked following data hacking

The board of the psychotherapy centre Vastaamo on Monday terminated the centre’s Chief Executive Officer Ville Tapio following the large-scale data hacking, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

The termination order will be effective immediately with the board chair, Tuomas Kahri, replacing him, in addition to his responsibility of leading the management board of Vastaamo.

The CEO was held responsible for keeping the incidents secret for one and a half years.

He was apparently aware of the second data breach and shortcomings in the Vastaamo data security.

Earlier, in last week, Vastaamo announced that sensitive information about its clients was leaked after its database had been hacked recently.

The company also said that the hackers who stole the data were trying to extort money from the patients, if they wanted 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.

The police are now investigating the incident as aggravated burglary, aggravated blackmail, and dissemination of aggravated invasion of privacy.