One cyberattack is distressing enough. But has The Eye Clinic Surgicenter been attacked by two different groups this year? Silence is not golden if patient data has already been leaked.
Last week, Meow Leaks added The Eye Clinic Surgicenter in Montana to their leak site. Meow’s site indicates that is offering 59 GB of files for sale with a price tag of $50,000.00 for an exclusive sale or $25,000,00 for non-exclusive purchase. According to Meow, the data pack allegedly includes employee data with identity information such as SSN and driver’s licenses, patient data with medical records and reports, and internal documents of the practice. Meow provided a number of files as proof of claims.
While researching this incident, DataBreaches realized that Black Suit threat actors had added the same medical group to their leak site back in June of this year and subsequently leaked almost 52 GB of files. Now Meow Leaks was claiming to have 59 GB?
Did Black Suit and Meow have the same data from the same attack? Was there one affiliate who gave data to both groups, or were these two separate attacks? DataBreaches reached out to Meow to ask while continuing to search for any statement from The Eye Clinic Surgicenter. Meow has yet to respond, but in a separate chat with DataBreaches, Meow had stated that they do not encrypt or lock medical entities. Black Suit, however, typically does encrypt its victims’ data. Did Black Suit exfiltrate data and encrypt The Eye Clinic Surgicenter’s files in June while Meow Leaks later attacked the medical practice and exfiltrated other data?
What happened here? The Eye Clinic Surgicenter hasn’t told us.
It is now four months since Black Suit added The Eye Clinic Surgicenter to their leak site and appears to have leaked data. There is nothing on the entity’s website about any data security incident. There is no report on HHS’s public breach tool or on the Montana Attorney General’s website, even though The Eye Clinic Surgicenter provides services in Montana and Wyoming and would appear to be subject to the state’s breach notification law.
The Eye Clinic Surgicenter did not reply to two inquiries DataBreaches sent them via email and their website.
Once again, then, it seems that patient data may have been leaked or sold on the dark web while patients may be totally in the dark that there has been any breach involving their protected health information and that they should take steps to protect themselves from fraud or other misuse of their information.
If The Eye Clinic Surgicenter responds to the inquiries, this post will be updated.