More than a year after his arrest in France, Aleksanteri Kivimäki has just been sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison for hacking more than 20,000 patient files from the Vastaamo psychotherapeutic care clinic, located in Helsinki (Finland). . Subsequently, he also tried to ransom the center as well as the patients.
Did you know that Finland was the happiest country in the world in 2023, designated by the very serious World Happiness Report? Maybe. But perhaps you also didn’t know that in 2018 it experienced the largest cyberattack in its history? Yes, Finland hides its game well and does not only achieve environmental feats, like its sand or gravity batteries.
It also hosts a high-flying cyberhacker who, single-handedly, not only attempted to ransom more than 20,000 patients from a healthcare center located in Helsinki, but also the center itself, taking advantage of the lack of measures to protect and secure patient data, which are known to attract cyberhackers. After 6 years on the run, Aleksanteri Julius Kivimäki, who had fled to France, was arrested on February 3, 2023, extradited to Finland on February 24 and tried in March 2024. Verdict: 6 years and 3 months in prison.
Vastaamo, the largest cyberattack in Finnish history which leads to the arrest of a hacker in France in 2023
It all starts in Helsinki, Finland. It is 2020, and Vastaamo, a private psychotherapy care provider, reveals that it has suffered what will be considered the largest cyberattack in the country. One or more hackers accessed the clinic’s patient database in November 2018 and March 2019. They obtained private information and attempted to extort Vastaamo and its patients. The hackers demanded 40 bitcoins, around 450,000 euros at the time, and threatened to publish the files if they were not paid.
After the company’s extortion attempt failed, the hackers then sent emails to the patients whose data they had obtained, demanding that they pay ransoms to avoid the publication of their sensitive personal data. These ransom demands were sent to approximately 30,000 victims.
The company’s security practices were found to be insufficient: sensitive data was not encrypted and anonymized. In December 2021, the Finnish Data Protection Authority fined Vastaamo €608,000 for violating the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Ultimately, it was not just one suspect behind the attack who was identified as Aleksanteri Julius Kivimäki, 26 years old. He was arrested in France on February 3, 2023 and was extradited to Finland on February 24, 2024, where his trial began.
Thousands of complaints following the cyberattack which caused the crime rate to jump in Finland
Aleksanteri Julius Kivimäki, 26, was indeed identified as the main suspect behind the cyberattack against Vastaamo. He has been charged with several crimes related to that attack, including an aggravated data breach, nearly 9,600 counts of aggravated invasion of privacy related to the dissemination of information, more than 21,300 aggravated extortion attempts, and 20 case of aggravated blackmail.
As a result of these accusations, around 24,000 people filed criminal complaints with the police, making this the largest criminal case in Finnish history. Additionally, Aleksanteri Kivimäki faces more than 5,000 compensation claims to date.
A record number of complaints for a single case which caused the crime rate to take off in Finland. This actually doubled after this accusation.
It must be said that the Vastaamo hack affected approximately 33,000 patients, leading to a record number of complaints, and therefore, mathematically, a significant impact on crime statistics in the country. It is also likely that the nature of the crime (a massive invasion of privacy and attempted extortion) caused great public outrage and thus prompted more people to report the incident.
Source : The Register
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