The police have arrested the man suspected of hacking Vastaamo’s information.
The police have arrested a 25-year-old suspect of Vastaamo’s data breach Alexander Julius Kivimäki. Kivimäki was taken in France on the basis of a European arrest warrant.
– The arrest is the result of long-standing international cooperation and the police’s own information acquisition, crime commissioner Marko Leponen the central criminal police says in a press release.
Kivimäki was arrested in absentia at the Helsinki District Court already in October last year on suspicion of aggravated extortion attempt, aggravated data breach and aggravated dissemination of information infringing private life. He was known to be abroad, so he was wanted and a European arrest warrant was issued for him.
Kivimäki is suspected to be the psychotherapy center behind Vastaamo’s data breach. It is suspected that he broke into the company’s systems, took patient data and tried to extort money with them. Kivimäki is also suspected of having leaked the information online.
Tough background
Julius Kivimäki is suspected of having tens of thousands of victims. EUROPOL
The man has a tough past with hacking crimes. According to Iltalehti’s information, he has previously been sentenced for, among other things, aggravated data breach as a young person in 2020. Kivimäki, who was 17 at the time of the crime, had, among other things, made a baseless bomb threat to American Airlines and made baseless emergency center notifications about hostage situations as a minor.
Before this, in 2015, he was sentenced in the Espoo district court to a two-year suspended prison sentence for, among other things, 50,700 data breaches. He committed the crimes in question in 2012-2013 when he was only 15-16 years old.
A long investigation
The Central Criminal Police said in October of last year that they had made a breakthrough in the investigation of the case and had been able to track down Kivimäki. Information about the data breach at the reception desk was initially made public in the fall of 2020. The crimes had already been committed before.
Kivimäki’s imprisonment will be processed again when he is brought to Finland.
– The schedule of the extradition process depends on many factors, so at this stage it is challenging to estimate when the suspect will be brought to Finland. When the suspect has been handed over to Finland, a new detention hearing must be held in Finland. The goal is to interrogate the suspect as soon as possible, Leponen.
According to the police’s estimate, there are up to 30,000 victims of the crime. However, not all of them have reported the crime.
Kivimäki gave an interview to Sky News in 2014. Screenshot
Iltalehti exceptionally publishes the suspect’s name already in the preliminary investigation phase, based on the social significance of the crime and the suspect’s serious criminal background.