There have been several ransomware attacks in the healthcare industry in 2018 as cybercriminals succeeded in the digital invasion of various hospitals and medical institutions located in different states. Unfortunately, this time the target was one of the biggest and reputable clinical laboratories in the country, LabCorp Diagnostics, located in North Carolina.
Details of the Attack
Ransomware removal experts found ambiguous and dubious activities in their network which led them to close their network on Sunday, July 15th. According to ransomware removal experts, hackers managed to infiltrate LabCorp’s network on July 14th.
Security analysts of LabCorp were quick to notice and initiated their incident response policy by disconnecting their systems from the Internet. For their clients, it meant the inability to access their test information and being unable to view it.
LabCorp provides services to millions of patients with the actual figures of their patients estimated to be greater than 115 million. This is a source of worry for their stakeholders, as sensitive and personal data of millions of patients is at risk in the case of a cyber attack. Reporters wanted to gain further insight into the technicalities and details but LabCorp officials denied to divulge further information.
Fortunately for their clients, LabCorp managed to resume their operations after a few days. A few clients did face troubles and received their test results later than usual but eventually, services were resumed to their original state.
Moreover, there were questions regarding the proliferation of the attack to LabCorp’s sister concern, Covance Drug Development. Covance was purchased in 2014 with a price of $6.1 billion. However, ransomware removal experts denied any harm to Covance’s systems. Analysis on the type of ransomware is still being done by ransomware removal experts while LabCorp’s officials are still working tirelessly on their systems.
