"Finnish Hacker Gets Prison for Accessing Thousands of Psychotherapy Records and Demanding Ransoms"
Finnish court recently sentenced a 26-year-old man to six years and three months in prison for hacking thousands of patient records at a private psychotherapy center and seeking ransom from some patients over the sensitive data. In February 2023, French police arrested well-known Finnish hacker Aleksanteri Kivimäki, living under a false identity near Paris. The Länsi-Uusimaa District Court said Kivimäki was guilty of, among other things, aggravated data breach, nearly 21,000 aggravated blackmail attempts, and more than 9,200 aggravated disseminations of information infringing private life. According to the charges, Kivimäki in 2018 hacked into the information system of the Vastaamo psychotherapy center and downloaded its database of some 33,000 clients. Prosecutors said Kivimäki first demanded that Vastaamo pay him an amount equivalent to around 370,000 euros ($396,000) in bitcoins in exchange for not publishing the patient records. When the center refused, Kivimäki in 2020 began publishing patient information on the dark web and sent patients messages demanding a ransom of 200 euros or 500 euros. About 20 patients paid. In the United States, he was convicted over hacking cases involving the U.S. Air Force and Sony Online Entertainment.