Ransomware Gang
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/19/politics/fbi-ransomware-lockbit-dark-web-site/index.html
The FBI and its international allies have seized a dark-web site that the world’s most prolific ransomware gang has used to extort its victims, according to a message on the website viewed by CNN.
It’s a blow to the near-term operations of a multinational ransomware gang known as LockBit, which has been a menace to organizations all over the world, including health care providers in the US. The hackers claimed credit for a November ransomware attack that forced New Jersey-based Capital Health to cancel some patient appointments.
LockBit also claimed responsibility for ransomware attacks on the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Fulton County, Georgia, in recent months.
and
LockBit accounts for a quarter of the ransomware market based on victim information the hackers have posted online, according to Don Smith, vice president of threat research at cybersecurity firm Secureworks.
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Lockbit hit at least one hospital in Chicago.
And another hospital was hit a few weeks ago - one of the big children's hospitals:
A spokesperson for the hospital told NBC News by text message that Lurie Children’s took its systems offline Jan. 31, meaning that it has been operating at significantly reduced capability for more than a week.
In a press release put out Thursday afternoon, the hospital confirmed that its network was accessed by "a known criminal threat actor."
Experts say the incident is consistent with a ransomware attack. Ransomware hackers, often located in Russia, where they’re safe from extradition to other countries, frequently take over hospital networks and demand payment in cryptocurrency.
“From the outside, this has all the hallmarks of a hospital ransomware attack: patients being rerouted to other hospitals, phone and computer systems offline and staff being forced to retrieve medical records by hand,” said Alan Liska, an analyst at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future.
“If so, it’s part of an unfortunate trend of health care providers being increasingly targeted by ransomware groups. In 2024 alone, there have already been 24 publicly reported ransomware attacks against healthcare providers,” he said.
Land said that the outage has caused an infuriating runaround. Her daughter needs bloodwork completed for an appointment next week. But the digital order to get that bloodwork is inaccessible because Lurie’s systems are down, and despite repeated calls to the hospital’s emergency call center and a visit to the hospital, no one has given her a paper order for the bloodwork.
Her daughter is on a controlled substance and needs to refill her prescription every week, she said. Because Lurie patients currently don’t have access to MyChart, a popular medical program that lets patients message with doctors and doctors to write prescriptions, Land had to scramble to find another doctor to renew her daughter’s prescription.
Some days, I wonder if the old system of paper charts might not have been better.
And safer.
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There is a lot to be said for it. I’ve often questioned the real value of having medical records available across institutions. Seems to me the larger motivation is from big data, spending many billions to try to save money.
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There is a lot to be said for it. I’ve often questioned the real value of having medical records available across institutions. Seems to me the larger motivation is from big data, spending many billions to try to save money.
@Mik said in Ransomware Gang:
I’ve often questioned the real value of having medical records available across institutions.
As a patient, it's certainly convenient to have my records from DMG (DuPage Medical Group) be accessible from Northwestern.
But, security > convenience.
If Northwestern REALLY needed something, I could request it from DMG and get it to them, either by email or in-person.
