Julius Kivimäki, a Finnish member of the notorious cybercriminal group Lizard Squad, was arrested in France on Friday. Kivimäki, who now goes by the name Aleksanteri, was convicted of over 50,000 counts of computer crimes as a teenager in 2015. The arrest was made in response to a European arrest warrant issued by Finnish police on charges of computer-related crime, racketeering, and extortion. The warrant was issued as part of an investigation into a cyberattack on Vastaamo, a Helsinki-based private psychotherapy center, that was made public in 2020. The attack resulted in the theft of sensitive patient data and financial information, as well as extortion attempts against individual patients. The breach of Vastaamo and the extortion attempts against its clients has caused a great deal of distress in Finland, according to a report in the Christian Science Monitor. The police have received 6,400 victim statements so far, and the stolen documents were uploaded to the dark web. Kivimäki, who used the alias Zeekill in Lizard Squad, has denied the allegations. He has stated that he has not participated in criminal activities since he was a teenager and expressed regret for his past actions. The extradition process is expected to take some time, and a new detention hearing must be held in Finland once Kivimäki is handed over. The police are hoping to interrogate the suspect as soon as possible.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 03 Feb 2023 18:19:02 +0000