Data breaches → Vastaamo
Was your data in the Vastaamo breach?
2019 · vastaamo.fi · ~30,433 accounts exposedCritical severity · 10/10
Vastaamo (vastaamo.fi) suffered a data breach in 2019 that exposed around 30,433 accounts. If you had an account, some of your personal data may be circulating in leaked databases. The fastest way to know is to check your own email — free, in about 30 seconds, no password required.
What happened
In October 2020, the Finnish psychotherapy service Vastaamo was the subject of a ransomware attack targeting first the company itself, followed by their patients directly. The original security incident dates back to a period between late 2018 and early 2019 and exposed data including 30k unique email addresses, names, social security numbers and notes on individuals' psychotherapy sessions. This breach has been flagged as "sensitive" and is only searchable by owners of the email addresses and domains exposed in the incident.
Breach details sourced from Have I Been Pwned, the industry-standard breach database. Risk analysis by Nullivo.
What was exposed, and why it matters
Not all breaches carry the same risk — what matters is which fields leaked. Here is what the Vastaamo breach exposed and what each item actually enables:
The strongest identity-theft material there is — enough to open credit accounts or file fraudulent claims in your name.
Special-category data under UK/EU GDPR. Exposure can lead to discrimination, extortion or targeted harassment, and cannot be undone.
Links this leak to your other accounts — a reused username lets anyone build a profile of you across platforms.
Puts you on spam and phishing lists, and confirms to attackers that you hold an account with this service — which makes impersonation emails more believable.
What to do if you were affected
These steps are ordered for this specific breach — the most urgent action given what leaked comes first.
- Government identifiers: Consider a credit freeze or fraud alert with the credit reference agencies, and watch for accounts you did not open.
- Sensitive personal characteristics: Under UK/EU GDPR you have a strong right to erasure here — exercise it with the service and with any site republishing the data.
- Names and usernames: Search your usual username to see what else it exposes, and use distinct handles for sensitive accounts.
- Email addresses: Treat any message referencing this service with suspicion, and never act on links in unexpected emails.
- Check whether your own email appears in this breach — run a free scan to confirm before you spend time on the steps above.
This breach put your details on data-broker sites
Because Vastaamo exposed sensitive personal characteristics, this is one of the breaches that feeds people-search and data-broker sites. Those sites scrape leaked databases, combine them with public records, and republish the result as a searchable profile — which is how a single breach turns into a permanent public listing. Removal works, but brokers typically re-list within about four months, so it has to be repeated.
See our broker-by-broker removal guides →
How urgent is this now?
This breach is over 7 years old. Old credentials still cause harm — leaked passwords from a decade ago are still tried against new accounts every day.
Remember: a breach can't be "un-leaked" — once a database is out, it exists in countless copies. The goal is to make the leaked data useless: change what can be changed, lock down what can't, and remove what has been republished.
Frequently asked questions
What data was exposed in the Vastaamo breach?
The Vastaamo breach exposed government identifiers, sensitive personal characteristics, names and usernames, email addresses. The strongest identity-theft material there is — enough to open credit accounts or file fraudulent claims in your name.
How many people were affected by the Vastaamo breach?
Around 30,433 accounts were exposed, making it a smaller, more targeted breach.
What should I do if I had a Vastaamo account?
Consider a credit freeze or fraud alert with the credit reference agencies, and watch for accounts you did not open. You can check whether your own email appears in this breach with a free Nullivo scan — no password required.
Breaches that exposed similar data
If the Vastaamo breach affected you, these breaches exposed comparable information — worth checking too, since leaked datasets are routinely combined.
- Was your data in the CTARS breach? (2021, ~12,314 accounts)
- Was your data in the GoldSilver breach? (2018, ~242,715 accounts)
- Was your data in the University of California breach? (2020, ~547,422 accounts)
- Was your data in the Audi breach? (2019, ~2,743,539 accounts)
- Was your data in the Health Now Networks breach? (2017, ~321,920 accounts)
- Was your data in the DC Health Link breach? (2023, ~48,145 accounts)