The therapist comments on Meri’s “narcissistic speeches” – This is what happened – 2024-04-07 03:16:42

For the victims, the data breach has been a torment for years. Ismo Pekkarinen/AOP

I found myself wondering who the hell I ever thought I was. If the Therapist had thought of me this way, how could anyone else have ever put up with me.

This is how the Psychotherapy Center Vastamo’s data breach victim describes Mary Auer in the one just published Everyone gets to know – Me and Vastaamo’s data breach in his book (Deadline Kustannus 2024).

When Auer got his patient papers back from Vastaamo after the data breach and saw what the psychologist had written about him years ago in therapy sessions, the old wounds reopened, Auer says in his book.

Auer writes that during the difficult years, he received help from therapy and learned to live with depression.

For a while, life seemed to be going in a better direction. Until it turned out that perhaps anyone can access old patient data from the psychologist’s office.

–Reading my own patient reports, I was afraid that the measure of my worth is now here. Everything will be known, and after that nothing else will matter, Auer writes.

The therapist had described Auer, then in his twenties, in a way that shocked him later.

The patient is somewhat grandiose and narcissistic regarding the content of the speech. Although this is natural for age and life situation, the psychologist had recorded.

If this was the truth, I couldn’t stand it, Auer writes.

Blackmail message

Auer learned in October 2020 that his patient information had been leaked from Vastaamo’s server, as had the information of about 33,000 other customers.

Auer also received a blackmail message in which he was demanded money in exchange for his personal data being safe. Auer did not pay. An agonizing wait began.

– 24 hours passed. 48 hours passed. Monday, October 26 came. I and the other Vastaamo victims held our breath. Nothing happened. Patient information was not published anywhereAuer writes.

Still, according to him, everything had irrevocably changed.

– My world was no longer a safe place to liveAuer describes in his book.

He hid his social media accounts, changed his phone number and email address, chose a new name for himself.

In January 2021, patient data were again published on the dark web, this time including Auer’s.

Loneliness

Many of the victims of Vastaamo’s information leak have described the emotional pressure as years of torment when their sensitive patient information was leaked online. The therapist has been told personal and traumatic things about oneself and family members, as well as things about friends, spouse, work or co-workers, for example.

Auer says in his book that he applied for peer support from a group organized by Mieli ry. The loneliness has still been difficult, he writes.

Although there were tens of thousands of other victims besides me, I was alone with my own crisis.

Auer says that he achieved a budding balance with the data breach by talking to loved ones. Accepting that there is nothing you can do about it yourself has also helped.

Still, there is time before and after a data breach, he writes.

Source and citations from the book Everyone knows – Me and the information breach in his book (Deadline Publishing 2024).