A new BBC Radio 4 podcast series tells the disturbing true story behind a global cybercrime.
Intrigue: Ransom Man is the latest investigation from BBC Radio 4’s Intrigue feed, presented by journalist and author Jenny Kleeman.
It focuses on Finnish hacker Julius Kivimäki, who held more than 33,000 psychotherapy patients to ransom after stealing their confidential therapy notes.
Across six episodes, Kleeman unravels how Kivimäki, operating under the alias ransom_man, carried out one of the most shocking data breaches in recent European history.
Victims received emails threatening to publish their most intimate therapy records online unless they paid a ransom in bitcoin, turning private mental health conversations into leverage for extortion.
The series draws on gripping first-hand testimony, detailed investigative reporting and unprecedented access, including a rare prison interview with Kivimäki following his conviction.
Kleeman traces the story from the first ransom demands through an international manhunt, courtroom drama and the unresolved questions that still surround the case.
At the centre of the narrative is Meri-Tuuli Auer, one of the victims targeted by the hacker. Her story illustrates the personal and emotional devastation caused by the breach, as well as the wider collapse of trust in mental health services across Finland.
The hack became a national scandal, prompting Finland’s Prime Minister at the time, Sanna Marin, to call an emergency government meeting.
Reflecting on seeing Kivimäki for the first time, Auer describes the unsettling normality of the man responsible.
“When I first saw pictures of him, I don’t know what I had expected, but I was sort of surprised to see that he looked so normal,” she says. “He looks just like a regular Finnish young man. You see people like him walking around the streets all the time.”
Intrigue: Ransom Man also follows Auer’s journey to reclaim control of her story, including her decision to publish a book about her experience.
Alongside individual testimonies, the series asks broader questions about privacy, accountability and the safety of sensitive personal data in an increasingly digital world.
Kleeman, an Orwell Prize-winning journalist and acclaimed broadcaster behind Radio 4’s The Gift, says the case has implications far beyond Finland.
“ransom_man is a hacker without boundaries – and this story is so much bigger than Finland,” she says. “In a world where so much of our most intimate data is stored digitally, it’s a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever typed anything into a computer or phone.”
The series explores what happens when the deepest corners of people’s inner lives fall into the wrong hands, and how societies respond when systems designed to protect vulnerability fail so catastrophically.
All six episodes of Intrigue: Ransom Man are available on BBC Sounds. The series will also air weekly on BBC Radio 4 from 20 January at 9am.
