– The arrest is the result of the police’s long-term international cooperation and intelligence services. Since the schedule of the extradition process depends on several factors, it is challenging at this stage to estimate when the suspect could arrive in Finland. comment Marko LeponenThe detective chief inspector responsible for the preliminary investigation of the KRP.
“When the suspect has been handed over to Finland, a new detention hearing must be organized in Finland. The goal is to get the suspect questioned as soon as possible.”
In October, the District Court of Helsinki took the man into custody in absentia on probable cause for aggravated extortion attempt, aggravated computer hacking and aggravated dissemination of privacy-infringing information in connection with hacking.
Psychotherapy Center Vastaamo’s customer database was hacked twice, first in November 2018 and then in March 2019. The service provider apparently only became aware of the violations in September 2020 through a blackmail message, which it reported to KRP, Tietoturva. Ombudsman, Cybersecurity Center and the Social and Health Supervision Agency (Valvira).
In October 2020, a bunch of customer data was published on the dark web, and the extortionist claimed to have data on tens of thousands of people and demanded to pay around 450,000 euros in Bitcoin.
Ville TapioThe founder and CEO of the counter was relieved of his duties at the end of the month on suspicion that he had been aware of the violations, but had neglected to report them for more than 18 months. Tapio and his parents had sold a majority stake in the service provider to Intera Partners in mid-2019.
The private equity firm launched a civil lawsuit over the acquisition, saying it would not have completed the acquisition if it had known about the data breaches. Tapio and his parents later had assets worth almost 10 million euros confiscated by the Helsinki District Court.
The court declared Vastaamo bankrupt in February 2021.
KRP has received about 23,000 criminal reports related to the incident.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page