Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation is pursuing Monero transactions in connection with the Vastaamo hack and related ransom demand allegedly carried out by Julius Aleksanteri Kivimäki. Kivimäki is accused of hacking into the database of a mental health firm and demanding a ransom in cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors have found new evidence of cryptocurrency traces to Kivimäki’s bank account. In October 2022, Kivimäki demanded 40 Bitcoins worth 450,000 euros in exchange for Vastaamo not publishing the records of more than 33,000 patients. If the demanded ransom was not paid, individual patients were allegedly targeted.
Finnish police obtained data proving that Kivimäki sent the Bitcoin payments he received to an exchange that did not follow KYC guidelines, exchanged them for Monero and transferred them to a private Monero wallet. These funds then appear to have been moved to other Bitcoin wallets through Binance.
Monero is known for its strong privacy features and claims to be untraceable. Technologies such as Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) and ring signatures anonymize users’ transactions. Monero creates a unique address for each transaction, making it difficult to trace transactions.
This incident also raises questions about the use of anonymous cryptocurrencies. For example, Eric Woerth, chairman of the Finance Committee of the French National Assembly, has proposed banning cryptocurrencies that anonymize users. The US Internal Revenue Service has also offered a $625,000 reward for cracking privacy coins in 2020. Previous research shows that blockchain analytics techniques can track transactions with privacy coins.
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