While many ransomware groups claim there’s nothing personal in what they are doing and that it’s “just business,” there are some lines even criminals should never cross. Interfering with patient care when lives might be on the line if care is delayed or disrupted is one such line. Attempting to harass, threaten, or extort seriously ill patients is a second example.
Earlier this month, the UW Fred Hutchinson Cancer Care Center in Seattle (“Fred Hutch”) revealed that they had been the victim of a cyberattack in November. Not only had they been the victim of a cyberattack, but the threat actors were contacting the patients directly, reportedly telling them that for $50.00, they could have their personal and protected health information (PHI) removed from any data leak.
Fred Hutch encouraged patients not to pay and not to respond to the threat actors.
There is no indication or report by Fred Hutch that the threat actors encrypted any files.
This week, the ransomware gang called Hunters International claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to leak 533.1 GB of information in 711,627 files. They provided 16 thumbnails of what purports to be files from the tranche, but were difficult to read.
Today, the listing appears to have been removed. Whether the removal indicates any payment or negotiations is unknown. It just may be that the listing was removed so that the threat actors could update the listing and leak more data.
The Data Breach Times will continue to monitor this incident.
