Searches were made of the patient information of the front desk using the names of the police officers. Other search terms used in the searches refer to the author’s interest in finding information about MPs and ministers as well.
Searches of this type were made in Vastaamo’s patient database. Police preliminary investigation material
According to the preliminary investigation material related to the data breach of Psychotherapy Center Vastaamo, the hacker searched the patient database related to police officers, members of parliament and ministers.
Data breach is being blamed Aleksanteri Kivimäki, 26. According to the police, Kivimäki penetrated the patient database and took sensitive information. In September–October 2020, victims were extorted money with information.
Based on the preliminary investigation by the police, the user of the server had searched the patient database for the names of police officers based on its command history. Text searches were made on October 22, 2020 at 12:21–12:22 and at 22:48.
About two minutes after the last search, a message had been published on Ylilauda under the username of Kivimäki, who was accused of crimes, telling about the list of policemen who were clients of Vastaamo, published on the Tor network.
According to the preliminary investigation material, the search terms of the patient database searches and their orthodox inflection pointed to a Finnish-speaking author.
The patient database had been searched using terms, among other things ed, actions, min, minister, minister, rape, pedof, politics, people, culture minister, famous, Polish and police.
Kivimäki has denied that he searched for or looked at information from the patient database. According to him, the time stamps presented were not necessarily accurate.
– In addition to Kivimäki’s claim, the police have not come to the attention of any facts on the basis of which there would be reason to doubt the accuracy of the time stamps, the preliminary investigation protocol states.
Counter data breach
Psychotherapy center Vastaamo’s patient data ended up in the hands of a hacker in November 2018.
In September-October 2020, money was successfully extorted from the victims. About 33,000 people’s information was leaked to the dark Tor network.
Aleksanteri Kivimäki is suspected of data breach and extortion. He was wanted and arrested in absentia on suspicion of crimes in October 2022. In February 2023, he was captured in France.
At first, the police had difficulty finding all the victims of data breach and extortion, but in August 2023, the police announced that they had succeeded in doing so thanks to an international request for legal assistance.
The prosecutor filed charges against Kivimäki in October 2023. The prosecutor demands a seven-year prison sentence for Kivimäki for aggravated data breach, attempted aggravated blackmail, 9,598 aggravated dissemination of information infringing private life, 21,316 aggravated blackmail attempt and 20 aggravated blackmail.
There are a total of 21,459 litigants, i.e. victims of acts according to the indictment, in the trial.
In April, Vastaamo’s CEO Ville Tapio was sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence for a data protection crime.
Iltalehti exceptionally publishes the name of the accused before the district court’s decision based on the social significance of the Vastaamo data breach and the suspect’s serious criminal background.