Alleged Extortioner of Psychotherapy Patients Faces Trial
Summary: Finland began its criminal trial of 26-year-old Julius Kivimäki, charged with extorting the now-bankrupt Vastaamo Psychotherapy Center and thousands of its patients after a hacker using the handle "Ransom Man" threatened to publish therapy notes for a six-figure ransom, then demanded 500 euros from individual patients. A 2,200-page report ties Kivimäki to the breach through a home folder he mistakenly included in the leaked patient archive, his credit card payment for the server hosting the stolen notes, and the domain krebsonsecurity[.]org, which hosted his scanning and password-cracking tools; prosecutors seek a seven-year sentence.
What's compelling: The extortion targeted psychotherapy patients directly, and the case was broken open less by sophisticated forensics than by the suspect's own operational sloppiness - a leaked home directory and a traceable card payment. The evidence trail investigators followed ran through servers in multiple countries, which is the part that is tedious and slow for police rather than impossible.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Ransomware
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