City of Hope updated its breach disclosure. DataBreaches can now reveal some previously undisclosed details about the 2023 incident.
In December 2023, City of Hope, a cancer treatment center in Duarte, California, notified HHS that it had experienced a breach. Its report indicated that “501” patients had been affected, but this was just a marker indicating that they did not know the number.
Related: ENFORCEMENT: How does HHS follow up on reports that “500” were affected?
City of Hope’s Update
City of Hope (COH) notified the Maine Attorney General’s Office this week. They reported that attackers accessed their system between September 19 and October 12, 2023, and they discovered the intrusion on October 13, 2023.
COH also reported that 827,149 patients were affected. The type of information varied by patient but might include the following elements: name, contact information (e.g., email address, phone number), date of birth, social security number, driver’s license or other government identification, financial details (e.g., bank account number and/or credit card details), health insurance information, medical records and information about medical history and/or associated conditions, and/or unique identifiers to associate individuals with City of Hope (e.g., medical record number).
City of Hope’s report of “501” to HHS has not been updated on HHS’s public breach tool as of publication.
AlphV Responsible for the Attack
In December, DataBreaches learned from a reliable source that the attack was the work of AlphV, aka BlackCat. However, the information was provided off the record, so DataBreaches could not report it then. Shortly thereafter, law enforcement seized AlphV’s leak site and infrastructure. The COH listing had not appeared on the leak site before the site was seized, so this is the first time the attack has been publicly linked to AlphV.
DataBreaches’s source, an AlphV affiliate knowledgeable about the incident, provided additional details today. The source claims that COH was targeted because AlphV knew about AOH1966. AOH1966 is a cancer treatment that appears to be effective. AlphV hoped to acquire files on AOH1966 that they could use to extort COH for a large sum. As it turned out, he said, AlphV did not obtain any files on AOH1966. Although they acquired files with personally identifiable information and some protected health information, the data they acquired were not as valuable as they had hoped.
When asked whether COH had tried to negotiate any payment, the source replied that COH had reached out “but to no resolution—only a file list.” COH appeared to have been saved from having patient data leaked by the seizure of AlphV’s server.
DataBreaches emailed COH to ask if they would confirm or comment on the source’s claims, but no reply was immediately available. This post will be updated when a reply is received.