A Finnish hacker, arrested in France, was tracked by Europol and his country’s police. A photo of his hand holding a water bottle would have detected his fingerprint.
Anything can betray you on the internet. Finnish justice published more than 2,000 documents at the end of January 2024 against cybercriminal Julius Kivimäki, formerly called Aleksanteri Kivimäki, arrested in France a year ago. The hacker had taken on a false identity and lived in Courbevoie, in the Paris suburbs. The 25-year-old pirate was reportedly denounced by his partner’s friend, after a violent argument in a nightclub. Julius was unaware that law enforcement had accumulated a massive amount of data against him.
The Finnish media Yle dug into the document database and revealed that a photo of the hacker’s hand allowed the Finnish police and Europol to track the hacker. The latter published a simple photo of a bottle of mineral water that he was holding in his hand, on a famous Finnish forum called Ylilauta. Finnish police analysts worked on the image to discern part of Julius Kivimäki’s fingerprint.
Wanted for the cyberattack on a hospital group
Tracking a cybercriminal is never easy and even if investigators were able to collect some data, it was often too late to intervene. Finnish police were able to locate the IP address of a device belonging to Julius Kivimäki. This address is potentially linked to the photo, a credit card used to pay for access to OnlyFans content and a hotel stay.
Julius Kivimäki is the author of numerous hacks, including one that shook Finland. In October 2020, he attacked a hospital group of 25 psychotherapy centers named Vastaamo and took the files of 22,000 patients hostage, demanding a ransom of 452,000 euros to unlock them. The file becomes too sensitive and does not find a buyer in the world of cybercrime. The young hacker preferred to flee the country, before being arrested three years later. The Finnish courts are expected to deliver their verdict at the end of February.
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