Updated August 28: DataBreaches.net was contacted today by Chris Roberts of HillBilly Hit Squad on behalf of Ventura Orthopedics. They had gotten this site’s inquiries and asked him to help explain the incident and their current status. Chris is still in the process of doing forensics, and rather than provide information piecemeal, I’m going to hold off until he has a fuller picture to share with us as to what happened and how it happened. What I can say for now is that it sounds like Ventura Orthopedics did a number of things well — including proactively having backups. And while the attack did have some impact, it sounds like it really could have been much worse. But as I said, I will have more on this one next week. Thanks to Ventura Orthopedic for reaching out to this site.
Original post follows:
On August 2, Cyble tweeted that Maze ransomware operators had added Ventura Orthopedics to their leak site. The threat actors also uploaded an archive of files allegedly taken from the practice’s server and claimed it was 5% of the files exfiltrated.
https://twitter.com/AuCyble/status/1290118046791729152
Ventura offered no statement, however, and there is nothing on their web site or on HHS’s public breach tool that would provide further confirmation or details.
Yesterday, however, DataBreaches.net became aware that Conti-ryuk had created a leak site. In looking at it, I noted that Ventura Orthopedics was listed as one of their victims.
Conti News published 1,850 files from Ventura Orthopedics. Some of the files were not specific to individual patients, but there were a number of patients’ files/records dumped. Some of them were lab/diagnostic reports from RX Diagnostic Management, Inc. Those files included patients’ name, date of birth, medications, and laboratory findings/results.
Of note, just the listing of files exposed protected health information without even opening the files. Unfortunately, the practice used a filename system of the type:
lastname_first2lettersoffirstname_DOB(yyyy/mm/dd).
From inspection, it appears that Maze operators and Conti operators dumped different files on their leak sites.
More interestingly, perhaps, Maze’s site did not reveal their collaboration with Conti-Ryuk in this incident, so it’s not clear what kind of ransomware was deployed, and what each partner’s respective role or percent of any ransom would be (although it appears that no ransom was paid).**
DataBreaches.net reached out to Ventura Orthopedics both yesterday and today to request a statement and more details about this incident, but received no response. This post may be updated if a response is received. (See update at top of post and expect a more detailed follow-up next week).
**Note: It is pure speculation on my part that the two groups collaborated in attacking Ventura. Others, including@notbdak on Twitter, think that it may just be coincidence that both groups hit the same victim.