Ransomware removal analysts have been noticing the emerging pattern that has created an air of uncertainty in the healthcare sector. The onslaught of ransomware attacks in the healthcare industry has not been limited to the USA.
Recently, an Indian hospital was also found to be breached. Ransomware removal reporters have found yet another case as a healthcare organization CarePartners, located in Ontario (Canada) has been compromised with a ransomware attack. The organization announced the breach last month. CarePartners is a service provider that is associated with the Ontarian government.
The information compromised includes the patient’s details including diagnosis and treatment as well as critical personal details. The number of patients whose data has been feared to be compromised is expected to be in the thousands. A cybercriminal group has demanded money in return for access to the data. CarePartners maintained the stance that the details of the patients were ‘inappropriately accessed’.
Cybercriminals Share Proof
A Canadian news agency was allegedly contacted by a cybercriminals group that accepted responsibility for the cybercrime. As a proof, the group gave away a sample that is believed to be part of the compromised data.
Ransomware removal reporters noticed that the sample did contain information related to health records of patients with names, contact information, residential addresses as well as other personal and medical information. An additional sample was also given to the news agency which encompasses the data of more than 140 patients with their financial details like credit cards.
The cybercriminal group further said that these samples only constitute a tiny portion of the overall data that has fallen into their hands. Some of the data in their possession is claimed to date back to 2010. The cybercriminals demanded a ransom to return the data back to CarePartners with the promise of not leaking or selling any data to anyone on the internet as well as rectifying the IT security of CarePartners.
