A shocking data breach at a Finnish psychotherapy service. Jenny Kleeman traces the story of a nation’s secrets held to ransom by a faceless hacker. We all have some thoughts we’d never write down. Now, just imagine that someone had got hold of those thoughts, and was threatening to publish them for all the world to see - if you didn’t pay to stop them.
This is what happened to Tiina, a Headteacher living near Helsinki. When decades of stress and anxiety overwhelmed her, she sought support through a therapy service called Vastaamo.
Vastaamo was accessible, affordable, and a national success story. But in September 2020, the company received an email from a hacker claiming to have stolen their entire patient database - including therapy notes.
Antti Kurittu is the cybersecurity specialist tasked with saving the secrets of 33,000 patients, but can he and the police find a way to stop this hacker, who calls himself ransom_man?
Before long, Antti, Tiina and a whole nation learn just how far he is willing to go.
Written and presented by Jenny Kleeman. Producer: Sam Peach. Executive Producer: Georgia Catt. Sound Design: Sam Peach. Original music composed, performed and produced by Echo Collective: Neil Leiter, Margaret Hermant and Fabien Leseure. A BBC Studios Production Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams Commissioner: Dan Clarke