Old social welfare client documents permanently lost in Lohja data transfer

Old attachment files linked to social welfare clients in the Finnish city of Lohja have been permanently destroyed during a system migration between 2023 and 2024, the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County announced on Monday.

According to the authority, the lost files—including statements, receipts, and certificates tied to income support, child protection, and adult and family services—were stored between 2010 and 2022. Core client documents such as plans and decisions remain intact. The data breach does not pose a risk of unauthorised access, as the files were not exposed to third parties.

The system provider alerted the wellbeing services county to the suspected data loss in autumn 2025. Investigations confirmed the attachments were irrecoverably deleted during server environment changes as local ProConsona client information systems were consolidated following the transfer of municipal social welfare services to the county’s responsibility.

While most of the missing data no longer affects current client processes, the incident has been reported to the Data Protection Ombudsman and Valvira, Finland’s National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health. The county has stated that the loss is not expected to cause harm to clients and has issued an apology for the error.