Aimee Ortiz reports:
The personal and private information of possibly hundreds of thousands of people who applied for government assistance in Rhode Island could be in the hands of hackers after a huge cyberattack, state officials said on Friday.
The cybercriminals said to be behind the attack threatened to release the data unless they received a payment, said Brian Tardiff, the state’s chief digital officer.
Hackers gained access to RIBridges, the state’s online portal for obtaining social services, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and Medicaid benefits, as well as health insurance through the state’s marketplace for coverage, HealthSource RI, officials said at a news conference on Friday.
Read more at The New York Times.
Threat actors are reportedly claiming they will leak data if they do not receive payment, but the threat actors have not been named publicly at this point. In an update on Saturday, The Providence Journal reports that Governor McKee warns that stolen data could be leaked or sold as early as next week:
A negotiator hired by RIBridges contractor Deloitte is holding ransom talks with the hackers, McKee said in a Saturday night news conference, and based on those talks the state believes personal data “could be exposed in the near future, as early as this coming week.”
Are they negotiating just to try to get information about what data the threat actors obtained or they actually considering paying ransom? The government generally recommends against paying ransom.
The state has set up a webpage about the breach at https://admin.ri.gov/ribridges-alert. The page contains information about the incident and things citizens can do to protect themselves.