Prosecutors decline to charge Aleksanteri Kivimäki after extensive data breach investigation in Finland

Prosecutors have decided not to bring charges against Aleksanteri Kivimäki in connection with over 14,000 serious data breaches that occurred concurrently with the data breach involving the Psychotherapy Center Vastaamo. According to the prosecutor, the breaches likely involved 12 targets, which the investigation indicated were not significant to society at large. The data breaches came to light during the latter stages of the Vastaamo investigation.

The National Bureau of Investigation suspected Kivimäki in November 2018 of these over 14,000 data breaches, along with multiple incidents of serious extortion and attempted extortion that occurred in October 2020. Kivimäki was sentenced in April to more than six years in prison for the Vastaamo data breach. The district court upheld all charges, including serious data breach, attempted serious extortion, over 9,200 counts of serious violation of privacy through information dissemination, nearly 21,000 attempted extortions, and 20 counts of extortion.

The court found that Kivimäki had unlawfully accessed Vastaamo’s information system in November 2018, downloaded the patient database, and published information online about approximately 33,000 individuals from that database. This case represents the largest in Finnish history in terms of the number of victims involved. Kivimäki has filed an appeal against the sentence, and the case will continue in the Helsinki Court of Appeal. Updates on the situation are forthcoming.