Finnish Hacker Gets Prison for Accessing Thousands of Psychotherapy Records and Demanding Ransoms

A 26-year-old man in Finland has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison for hacking thousands of patient records at a private psychotherapy center and attempting to extort ransom from some patients over the sensitive data. The perpetrator, Aleksanteri Kivimäki, was found guilty of aggravated data breach, over 21,000 counts of aggravated blackmail, and more than 9,200 counts of disseminating private information.

He hacked into the Vastaamo psychotherapy center’s information system in 2018, accessing the database of around 33,000 clients, and demanded a ransom from the center. When they refused, he began publishing patient information on the dark web and demanded ransoms from patients directly. Kivimäki denied all charges and is likely to appeal, despite prosecutors seeking the maximum seven-year prison term. This isn’t Kivimäki’s first brush with the law; he has a history of hacking-related convictions dating back to his adolescence, including cases involving the U.S. Air Force and Sony Online Entertainment in the United States.