Gramercy Surgery Center (“Gramercy”) is an ambulatory surgery center with locations in Manhattan and Queens, New York.
On or about July 15, the threat actor(s) known as Everest Team added Gramercy to its leak site. Everest claimed to have acquired more than 460 GB of files but offered only images of two old files as proof of claims.
DataBreaches emailed Gramercy on July 15 to ask a number of questions about the attack and their response. They did not reply. On August 8, after Everest leaked all the data, DataBreaches emailed Gramercy again to repeat the questions. Once again, they did not reply.
Today, DataBreaches found an undated notice posted on Gramercy’s site. It states, in part:
What Happened? On June 18, 2024, Gramercy Surgery Center learned that it may have been the victim of a cyber-attack. We promptly took steps to secure our systems and commenced an investigation into the nature and scope of the incident. We have been working diligently to investigate this incident and confirm any information that may be affected. On June 28, 2024, we determined that certain documents stored within Gramercy Surgery Center’s environment were copied from or viewed on the system as part of the incident between June 14, 2024 and June 17, 2024. Based on this determination, we conducted a review of the potentially impacted data to determine the individuals potentially affected, the type of information involved.
What Information Was Involved? We have determined that the following types of information may have been viewed or copied: name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, driver’s license or state identification card number, medical record number, treatment information, and health insurance information. It is important to note that the information varies by individual and not all of these data types were potentially affected for each person.
Patients may not have been notified yet because they write, “Gramercy Surgery Center will also be notifying affected individuals and providing information on steps that may be taken to better protect personal information.”
Gramercy does not mention whether they have notified HHS. If they have, HHS has yet to post their submission. We do not yet know how many patients may have been affected by this breach.
DataBreaches has yet to examine the large tranche but observed that the tranche part names suggest patient data and internal documents were captured.
Nowhere in its notice does Gramercy mention that there was a ransom demand. Everest Team does not encrypt their victims’ files or systems but generally demands payment if victims want Everest to delete their data or not leak it. Given that the data have been leaked, it seems likely that Gramercy either never attempted to negotiate or otherwise failed to meet Everest’s demands.
Of concern, Gramercy’s notice fails to tell patients that a large amount of data has been leaked on the dark web. As always, DataBreaches maintains that patients or other affected individuals should be informed when their data has been leaked on the internet so they can consider what steps they might need to take to protect themselves.
This post will be updated if more information becomes available from Gramercy or from Everest Team. DataBreaches also sent Everest some questions today.
Update: See this post for a preliminary discussion of the types of patient data found in the tranche leaked by Everest.