Maternal & Family Health Services (“MFHS”) in Pennsylvania has issued a press release about what they describe as a “sophisticated ransomware incident.” At this point, given so many ransomware attacks over the past few years, DataBreaches has no idea what would be considered “sophisticated.” In any event, MFHS began notifying potentially affected individuals, including certain…
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Romanian hospital victim of ransomware attack
Radu Dumitrescu reports: The Saint Gheorghe Recovery Hospital in Botoşani, in northeastern Romania, was the target of a ransomware attack in December, and medical activity is still impacted. Hackers demanded 3 Bitcoin for the decryption of the data on the servers. The attack is similar to the one in the summer of 2019, when four…
Swansea Public Schools cancel classes Wednesday after ransomware attack
Ryan Mancini reports: Schools canceled classes on Wednesday after the Swansea Public Schools was reportedly struck by a ransomware attack. Superintendent John J. Robidoux informed families on Tuesday that the district’s network was shut down. Read more at MassLive. h/t, Doug Levin
Just snarky or dangerous? Ransomware gang cloned victim’s website to leak stolen data
Ionut Ilascu reports: The ALPHV ransomware operators have gotten creative with their extortion tactic and, in at least one case, created a replica of the victim’s site to publish stolen data on it. It appears that ALPHV, also known as BlackCat ransomware, is known for testing new extortion tactics as a way to pressure and shame their…
Why Do Ransomware Victims Pay for Data Deletion Guarantees?
Mathew J. Schwartz reports: Many ransomware-wielding attackers are expert at preying on their victims’ compulsion to clean up the mess. Hence victims often face a menu of options: Pay a ransom for a decryptor, and you’ll be able to unlock forcibly encrypted data. Pay more, and your name gets deleted from the list of victims…
New Data Quantifies Ransomware Attacks on Healthcare Providers
Hannah Neprash and Alan Z. Rozenshtein write: In a new JAMA Health Forum Original Investigation, we and our co-authors address this data gap. We have created the Tracking Healthcare Ransomware Events and Traits (THREAT) database, a comprehensive accounting of 374 ransomware attacks on U.S. healthcare delivery organizations from 2016-2021. To assemble this database we used…