A court in Finland sentenced a 26-year-old hacker to six years and three months in prison for hacking tens of thousands of records of patients from a private psychotherapy center and extorting ransom from some patients for these confidential data, the AP agency reported.
This case first became known in October 2020. A record number of people – about 24,000 – filed reports of the crime with the police. In February 2023, the French police arrested the well-known Finnish hacker Alexander Kivimäki, who was living under a false identity near Paris, and deported him to Finland. His trial concluded last month.
The district court of Länsi-Uusimaa found Kivimäki guilty, among other things, of data breach under aggravating circumstances, nearly 21,000 instances of extortion under aggravating circumstances, and dissemination of information, which was deemed interference with private life under aggravating circumstances, in over 9,200 cases.
The court deemed these crimes ruthless and highly damaging, considering the psychological state of the affected individuals. According to the allegations, Kivimäki hacked into the information system of the psychotherapy center Vastaamo in 2018 and downloaded its database of around 33,000 clients.
Attorney Jenny Raikio, who represented the interests of about 1,500 clients, told the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in March that at least several victims had committed suicide due to the sensitive nature of the information leaked in the files.
Prosecutors stated that Kivimäki initially demanded Vastaamo to pay him an amount equivalent to around 370,000 euros in bitcoins in exchange for not publishing patient records.
When the center refused, Kivimäki began publishing information about patients on the darknet in 2020 and sending messages to patients demanding ransoms of 200 or 500 euros. Prosecutors stated that around 20 patients paid.
