"A Hacker Is Threatening to Leak Patients' Therapy Notes"
There has been a rise in ransomware attacks against large companies and critical organizations such as those that provide medical care. A hacker is currently threatening to publicly release data stolen from Finland's health care and mental health services provider Vastaamo. The data contains sensitive information, including therapy notes. The investigation of this situation revealed that Vastaamo had at least one unsecured database containing patient information, which was breached in November 2018 and possibly in mid-March 2019. Although the number of affected patients remains unknown, the National Bureau of Investigation said that tens of thousands might be impacted. The hacker behind the extortion campaign has demanded around $530,000 worth of Bitcoin from Vastaamo. This article continues to discuss the extortion campaign targeting Finland's Vastaamo mental health services provider, the response to this incident, the different forms of data extortion attacks, and other examples of patient data being used in extortion schemes.
Wired reports "A Hacker Is Threatening to Leak Patients' Therapy Notes"