Update of Dec. 23: As of this evening, the hacker has not responded to a request from this site that they provide proof of access to PHI. And according to a MedHost spokesperson, they will not be reporting this incident to HHS because no PHI was accessed. Under the circumstances, unless more emerges, DataBreaches.net is closing this incident and not including it in our monthly statistics.
Original story:
HIStalk reprts that “Medhost’s public website medhost.com was hacked Tuesday morning, according to a cyber intruder’s message that replaced the company’s usual home page content.”
An image file uploaded by HIStalk says, in part: “Unfortunately, this website has been hacked. All personal information obtained from the servers, will be available for purchase online, if the company does not meet our demands. We have the following in our possession: 127 domain names Access to patient records Access to patients payment information We demand a payment of 2btc to release the servers and domain names back to the company.”
MEDHOST did not immediately reply to an inquiry sent by DataBreaches.net asking them to confirm or clarify the attackers’ claims. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
UPDATE (12-20) DataBreaches.net has yet to receive any statement from MEDHOST, but HIStalk did get a statement from Medhost CISO William Crank:
MEDHOST has full control of the domain, and the restoration of the domain and associated applications has been completed. Depending upon geographic location, sites may already have full access, but it is possible that the DNS restore process could take up to 24 hours to propagate the changes due to TTL. Intermittent application impact may be experienced by end users during that time. MEDHOST wants to reiterate that there is no indication that sensitive information was comprised and the incident didn’t extend beyond the redirection of the MEDHOST DNS to a static site with the message your article referenced. We strive to provide a robust and secure platform for our clients and continue to investigate this incident and its root cause.
But is this a reportable breach under HIPAA? Send in the lawyers….?
UPDATE (12-21) MEDHOST has issued a statement on its site:
This is an update on the resolution of the MEDHOST.com domain incident. On 12/19/2017 MEDHOST’s account with our internet domain registrar was compromised and our public facing URLs were redirected to a site that stated patient data would be sold if we did not meet certain demands. MEDHOST has no indication that patient information was compromised, and throughout the incident, we remained, and continue to remain in full control of our internal systems.
MEDHOST has full control of the domain, and the restoration of the domain and web-based applications has been completed. Depending upon geographic location, some customers already have full access, but it is possible that the process could take up to 24 hours to propagate. Intermittent application impact may be experienced by end users during that time.
We are continuing to investigate this incident and its root cause.
DataBreaches.net also sent an inquiry to the hacker asking for any proof of his/their claims, and will update this post if a response is received.