Ransomware group posts stolen North Carolina county health data online
Ransomware group DoppelPaymer has published online two batches of protected health and personally identifiable information belonging to residents of Chatham County, N.C., according to a Feb. 9 Chatham News + Record report.
DoppelPaymer stole the sensitive data files during an Oct. 28 cyberattack on the county’s government systems. The hackers posted at least two batches of Chatham County’s data on both the dark web and light web, which makes the information accessible via key search criteria, according to the report.
The first data upload was made Nov. 4 and contained “mostly innocuous” files, Chatham County Manager Dan LaMontagne told the publication. A second data upload in late January, however, contained more sensitive data, which has been viewed more than 30,000 times, according to the ransomware site.
The county plans to release a summary report of the incident at its board of commissioners meeting next week as well as to the public and is working to address the issue of the public posting of the files.
“Chatham County staff has been engaged with staff from the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services and the N.C. Attorney General’s Office to ensure we meet the reporting requirements as it relates to protected health information and/or personally identifiable information data,” Mr. LaMontagne said. “We will continue to engage in these conversations with our cyber insurance attorney(s), DHHS, and the AG to ensure we respond in the most appropriate manner possible as it relates to the data accessed from our network during the event.”
Data files exposed by the incident include medical evaluations of children from neglect cases, personnel records of some employees and documents related to ongoing investigations with the Chatham County Sheriff’s office.
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