“Many patients of a large psychotherapy clinic in Finland have been contacted individually by a blackmailer, after their data was stolen,” reports the BBC:

The data appears to have included personal identification records and notes about what was discussed in therapy sessions.

Vastaamo is a nationwide practice with about 20 branches and thousands of patients. The clinic has advised those affected to contact the police. It said it believed the data had been stolen in November 2018, with a further potential breach in March 2019… About 300 records have already been published on the dark web, according to the Associated Press news agency.

On its website, the clinic calls the attack “a great crisis”. It has set up a helpline and is offering all victims one free therapy session, the details of which will not be recorded.

According to the article, the blackmailer claims Vastaamo refused to pay the 40 bitcoin ransom — so they are instead blackmailing individual patients.

And one patient even complained that while his therapist took notes in a physical notebook, “he had not been told these would be uploaded to a server.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Therapy Patients Blackmailed For Cash After Clinic Data Breach

Europe “now accounts for 46% of global coronavirus cases,” reports ABC News, “and nearly a third of total related deaths.”

Dr. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, a senior French physician and the president of the scientific council that reports to the government, warned that the country has “lost control of the epidemic,” after health authorities reported more than 52,000 new cases. He said that the council estimates that the true figure could well be closer to 100,000 daily cases, accounting for asymptomatic cases and those who haven’t been tested…

Fearing both the economic price of national lockdowns and the political backlash from citizens increasingly wearied of the restrictions on their livelihoods, government officials around Europe have been reluctant to shutter businesses to the extent that they did in the spring.

The Guardian reports that Apple “will temporarily close 17 of its 20 stores in France from Oct. 30, as the country goes into a fresh one-month lockdown due to a resurgence of coronavirus cases.”

Meanwhile, CNN reports that Taiwan “just marked its 200th consecutive day without a locally transmitted case of the disease,” due partly to mass testing but also quick and effective contact tracing.

Taiwan’s landmark achievement comes in a week when France and Germany are enacting new lockdowns and the United States identified a record 88,000-plus cases in a day. The state of Florida, which has a similar population size to Taiwan, with approximately 21 million people, identified 4,188 cases on Wednesday alone.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – While Europe Accounts for 46% of COVID-19 Cases, Taiwan Goes 200 Days Without a Local Infection