There’s a new leak site on the dark web this week, by an individual or individuals calling themself “DragonForce.”
Most of the listings on the site are dated December 13 but appear to refer to attacks that were made previously. DataBreaches spotted two medical sector victims among the listings:
Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network (“HOTBHN”)
The Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network (HOTBHN) provides services to individuals and families coping with mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities, developmental delays, and emotional conflict.
HOTBHN issued a data security notice on its website on December 6 — the same date listed by DragonForce on its listing.
In their security notice, HOTBHN reports that the incident occurred on October 22, 2023, and that between then and December 6, HOTBHN has not received any report of misuse of the data. But they also report that the types of information that may have been involved included first and last name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, medical record number, health insurance policy number, and medical and treatment information.
HOTBHN’s notice does not mention whether any encryption was involved in the attack. Nor do they mention whether there was any extortion or ransom demand, and if so, how they responded.
On its leak site, DragonForce claims it exfiltrated 55.78 GB of data. They also provide a link to what they call “publicated files,” but the connection to what is supposed to be a data tranche has timed out on multiple attempts to connect to it. DataBreaches has sent an inquiry/request to DragonForce to attempt to get the data tranche to examine it.
HOTBHN has arranged for complimentary credit monitoring services and identity theft protection services to all potentially impacted individuals at no cost to them for a period of twelve months.
Update of December 15: This incident was reported to HHS on December 12 as affecting 63,776 patients.
Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services
On December 13, DragonForce added Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBHS) to its leak site. As of publication, there appears to be a countdown clock with approximately 9 hours left on it.
GCBHS is a non-profit charitable organization that describes itself as the region’s “most comprehensive behavioral healthcare organization,” providing services for individuals dealing with mental health or addiction issues:
We work with individuals and families, adults and children, and people with conditions both chronic and acute. We’ve taken a holistic approach, creating programs that help our clients all the way around.
GCBHS is about helping the whole person. Through our services, we educate our clients about mental illness and addiction, teach them strategies to manage symptoms and medication, empower them to develop natural social supports, work with them to obtain and maintain employment, and encourage them to become naturally involved in their community.
They provide services to about 30,000 people annually.
DragonForce’s listing claims to have exfiltrated 72.4 GB of files, but they offer no proof of claims.
DataBreaches could find no notice of any security incident on CGBHS’s website nor via any Google news search. A contact form inquiry was sent that asked CGBHS a number of questions about the alleged incident, but no reply was immediately received.
At this time, then, the GCBHS claim remains unconfirmed.
Update of February 21: GCBHS posted a substitute notice on its website on January 25, 2024, and reported the incident to HHS on February 2 as affecting 50,000 patients. DataBreaches notes that DragonForce did leak data from the non-profit.
While credit monitoring is helpful, it is shameful that these healthcare facilities do not offer protection against medical identity theft and health insurance fraud. This is one of the leading enablers of the rise in health care costs. And it can be stopped. These facilities have no interest in doing that until they are sued. The state needs to step in and demand that they act.
Where is there data showing that information from data breaches is actually being used for medical identity theft? The only study I remember showed that most medical identity theft was due to people lending family or friends their health insurance so the other can get treatment or family or friends stealing their info to use and the victim not wanting to prosecute.
And where is there data showing that information from data breaches is actually being used for insurance fraud? I remember a couple of cases about 6 years ago, but I don’t think I’ve seen any recent evidence of that. Can you point us to some published research or proof?