Most Wanted: Teen Hacker - Where is Julius Kivimäki now? Details from the HBO Max docuseries, explored

Most Wanted: Teen Hacker tells the surprising true story of Julius Aleksanteri Tomminpoika Kivimäki, who became a hacker at a young age and was responsible for some serious cybercrimes across the globe.

From creating a fictitious security threat that forced an airline to make an emergency landing to stealing therapy session notes from a psychotherapy clinic, he has done it all, and that too in his teenage years.

Most Wanted: Teen Hacker delves into his cybercrimes, revealing details that the public is not aware of. The show also makes one wonder where Julius Kivimäki is now. The hacker is currently locked up in a prison in Finland.

Most Wanted: Teen Hacker - Where is Julius Kivimäki now?

Julius Kivimäki has been locked up in a jail in Finland since 2024. He has been convicted of hacking into the databases of psychotherapy clinic Vastaamo and stealing sensitive data. In 2024, he was sentenced to six years and three months in prison by a Finnish court. The hacker is now serving his sentence and is 28 years old at the time of writing.

As seen on Most Wanted: Teen Hacker, Kivimäki was once hailed as a computer prodigy but has since then gained infamy as one of Europe’s most notorious cybercriminals. At the age of 13, he was already involved with hacker groups and later gained attention through the Lizard Squad, a collective behind disruptive attacks on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live in 2014.

At that time, millions of gamers found themselves locked out of their consoles during Christmas but Kivimäki showed no remorse. He instead went on television and openly boasted about his skills.

In 2015, Finnish courts convicted him of over 50,000 computer-related crimes but since he was still a minor, he received only a suspended sentence. In 2020, he hacked into the servers of Vastaamo, a Finnish psychotherapy provider, and stole the private therapy notes of approximately 33,000 patients.

Instead of targeting the company alone, he went directly after the victims, demanding payments in cryptocurrency to keep their sensitive confessions private. The patients received threatening emails as Kivimäki warned them that their deepest secrets, from affairs to personal traumas, would be exposed unless they agreed to pay him a ransom.

After the incident came to light, Kivimäki could not be traced. An Interpol Red Notice was issued in 2022, making him one of Europe’s most wanted men. During this time, he traveled widely and lived a luxurious life under false identities, at places such as Saint-Tropez, London, Barcelona and even Kyiv.

In February 2023, he was busted by chance as Paris police responded to a domestic disturbance at his apartment and discovered he was living under a fake name with forged documents.

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He was then extradited to Finland, where he stood trial for the Vastaamo breach. The court found him guilty of thousands of offenses, including extortion, aggravated data breaches and violations of personal privacy. Finally, in 2024, Kivimäki was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, close to the maximum penalty available under Finnish law.

Most Wanted: Teen Hacker is available to stream on HBO Max.

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