When a ransomware gang names one target but links to another target or posts a description of a different target, journalists and researchers may understandably be left wondering who was attacked. If the threat actors have posted proof of claims, it may be possible to figure out who the target was, but with no proof of claims, well… bots and lazy journalists may be publishing claims that are inaccurate and may harm entities’ reputations.
Here are three recent examples. In one case, it was possible to determine who the victim was. In the second and third cases, not yet…
Qilin
On May 21, Qilin added “The Holiday: Adult Care Community & Retirement Homes” to its dark web leak site. Their description appeared lifted from a website, “Holiday Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Manville is a family-owned facility that has been proudly serving Northern Rhode Island since 1973. …” But the graphic that Qilin posted for the listing was not from the Holiday in Manville, Rhode Island. It was from the Holiday in Connecticut.
So which of the two locations by the retirement entity did Qilin hit? Inspection of their proof of claim files suggests Qilin hit the Rhode Island location. A screenshot of a file with resident data all listed Rhode Island addresses. A second screenshot with two patients’ names corresponds to obituaries for two women with those names who lived in Manville, Rhode Island at the time of their deaths in 2021 and 2022.
Did Qilin also get patient/resident data from the Connecticut location? Qilin has not leaked all the data, as they had threatened to do, so that’s not clear yet. But it does appear that at the very least, they acquired data from the Manville, Rhode Island location.
Global
On June 4, a new group calling itself “Global” posted its first two incidents. One of them, shown below, listed “Epworth-Hospital.” But the description is for Epworth Healthcare in Australia. If one searches Google for “Epworth-Hospital,” it displays a listing for Epworth Hospital in Indiana, U.S.
So who did Global hit? The AU healthcare system or the Indiana hospital? They did not post any proof of claims that would help us figure this out.
DataBreaches emailed both the U.S. and AU entities to ask if they had been the victim of any cyberattack, and will update this post if any reply is received. But the confusion also raises another possibility: if Global has tried to extort Epworth, has it sent its demands to the Epworth it actually hit?
InterLock
The InterLock gang has a well-organized leak site. They generally list the victim’s name, the number of files and folders exfiltrated, and the total amount of data. They also provide proof of claims. Why they listed “Family Health Specialists” when the leak appears to be from Texas Digestive Specialists is somewhat baffling.
Researching the puzzle, DataBreaches found that there had been a medical entity in Harlingen, Texas (where Texas Digestive Specialists has an office) called Family Health Specialists, and they were in the same building as Texas Digestive Specialists. The Family Health Specialists practice is no longer at that address. But were the two medical practices associated? Did InterLock also manage to get data from Family Health Specialists? It’s a puzzler.