Yesterday, following the attack on its systems earlier this month, the Scottish NHS confirmed in an online statement that clinical data relating to a small number of patients has been published by a “recognized ransomware group.”
On March 14th, the original statement by the NHS confirmed that hackers had accessed “a significant amount of data including patient and staff-identifiable information.”
The ransomware group then followed with a threat on its leak site that it will soon publish 3TB of data relating to NHS Scotland patients and staff unless its demands are met. The threat actor posted a ‘proof pack’ which shows sensitive clinical documents, including genetics reports and letters between doctors discussing patient treatments.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway Chief Executive Jeff Ace acknowledged that the information has been released by the attackers to prove it is in their possession. He made no reference to any ransom demand made by the group.
Morten Gammelgard, EMEA, co-founder, BullWall had this to say:
“Although the NHS is unlikely give into any ransom demands, the recent warning from Ransomware groups towards the healthcare industry should be taken very seriously as recent US events in healthcare in US and UK shows.
“Private patient data is incredibly valuable to attackers. Hospitals store large amounts of patient data, often in an unencrypted format. This sensitive and confidential data can be sold on, or used for extortion as is the case with NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
“Systems can always be breached and often you are fighting an invisible enemy unless you have the server intrusion tools to pick up the breach in the first place.
“The Critical IT infrastructure is becoming the most desired target for the Ransomware gangs and hospitals are under immense pressure to pay the ransom to get the confidential personal records back and avoid the embarrassment and reputational damage following a breach like this.”
Healthcare continues to be a prime target for threat actors. This case should serve as another warning that those in this sector need to beef up detection and prevention so that they avoid being my next headline.
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This entry was posted on March 28, 2024 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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NHS Trust Confirms That Clinical Data Related To Patients Leaked As Part Of Getting Pwned
Yesterday, following the attack on its systems earlier this month, the Scottish NHS confirmed in an online statement that clinical data relating to a small number of patients has been published by a “recognized ransomware group.”
On March 14th, the original statement by the NHS confirmed that hackers had accessed “a significant amount of data including patient and staff-identifiable information.”
The ransomware group then followed with a threat on its leak site that it will soon publish 3TB of data relating to NHS Scotland patients and staff unless its demands are met. The threat actor posted a ‘proof pack’ which shows sensitive clinical documents, including genetics reports and letters between doctors discussing patient treatments.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway Chief Executive Jeff Ace acknowledged that the information has been released by the attackers to prove it is in their possession. He made no reference to any ransom demand made by the group.
Morten Gammelgard, EMEA, co-founder, BullWall had this to say:
“Although the NHS is unlikely give into any ransom demands, the recent warning from Ransomware groups towards the healthcare industry should be taken very seriously as recent US events in healthcare in US and UK shows.
“Private patient data is incredibly valuable to attackers. Hospitals store large amounts of patient data, often in an unencrypted format. This sensitive and confidential data can be sold on, or used for extortion as is the case with NHS Dumfries and Galloway.
“Systems can always be breached and often you are fighting an invisible enemy unless you have the server intrusion tools to pick up the breach in the first place.
“The Critical IT infrastructure is becoming the most desired target for the Ransomware gangs and hospitals are under immense pressure to pay the ransom to get the confidential personal records back and avoid the embarrassment and reputational damage following a breach like this.”
Healthcare continues to be a prime target for threat actors. This case should serve as another warning that those in this sector need to beef up detection and prevention so that they avoid being my next headline.
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This entry was posted on March 28, 2024 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.