On April 28, DataBreaches reported that two different ransomware groups claimed to have attacked Albany ENT & Allergy Services, P.C. in Albany, New York. This week, Albany ENT & Allergy Services notified regulators and 224,486 affected employees and patients about a breach. Their notification is stunning, however, for its lack of certain details.
In their notification, they write:
On or about March 27, 2023, AENT became aware of suspicious activity on its computer network. AENT immediately launched an investigation, with the assistance of third-party computer forensic specialists, to determine the nature and scope of the incident. Through its investigation, AENT determined that, between March 23, 2023 and April 4, 2023, an unauthorized actor may have had access to certain systems that stored personal and protected health information. AENT reviewed those systems and files to confirm what information was stored therein, and to whom the information related.
On or about May 2, 2023, this extensive review identified certain employee, and patient information was present within the records. Although AENT has no evidence of any identity theft or fraud in connection with this incident, AENT is notifying those individuals whose information was present in AENT’s systems at the time of the incident.
AENT also writes that although they have no evidence of any identity theft or fraud in connection with this incident, they are notifying those individuals whose information was present in AENT’s systems at the time of the incident and are offering them 12 months of credit monitoring services.
Let’s start by reviewing the chronology as reported by the self-proclaimed attackers.
On April 23, BianLian listed an obfuscated version of Albany ENT & Allergy Services’ name on their leak site. They did not post any proof of claims at the time. DataBreaches was able to identify Albany ENT & Allergy Services as the victim by matching its description on Bian Lian’s site to information available on zoominfo[.]com. BianLian claimed to have downloaded 630 GB of files.
On May 11, they listed AENT and appeared to leak the data in multiple parts. Attempts to download the parts returned a “404” however.
On April 28, RansomHouse listed Albany ENT & Allergy Services on their leak site. They claimed to have locked AENT’s systems on March 27 (the date AENT claims they became aware of suspicious activity). RansomHouse also posted proof of claims and claimed to have downloaded 2 TB of data. On or about May 9, they appeared to have leaked AENT’s data.
Yet nothing in the AENT May 25 notification mentions any ransomware attack, any encryption of files, any ransom demands, and any patient or employee data dumped on the dark web.
DataBreaches reached out to Lauren Ayres, CEO of AENT to ask the following questions:
1. Were they aware of two different ransomware groups attacking AENT?
2. Did the two groups gain access the same way?
3. Did either attack interfere with patient care or the functioning of their practice at all?
4. Did both of these groups make ransom demands?
5. Did AENT respond to either or both of the ransom demands?
6. Why didn’t AENT notify employees and patients that not only had data been exfiltrated but ransomware groups were leaking the data or were likely to leak it?
Ayres did not immediately respond to the inquiries. At this point, then, there is no confirmation or denial from AENT that two different groups attacked them. DataBreaches also reached out to RansomHouse to ask whether they and BianLian were aware of each other in AENT’s system, but they have not yet seen the message left for them on Telegram.
This post will be updated when replies are received or more information becomes available.