Tag Archive for: dental

Alberta dental firm pays ransomware gang after attack

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Nearly 1.5 million Albertans personal information was recently compromised in a dental data breach as Alberta Dental Service Corporation of Canada announced that it was hacked on July 26, with the attacker encrypting some of its IT systems and data, SiliconAngle reports.

Lyle Best, corporate president of ADSC, said that the organizations cyberinsurance and forensic investigator was immediately engaged and paid the 8base ransomware gang an undisclosed amount of money after the hackers showed they had deleted the data they stole in the attack. The group uses encryption paired with “name and shame” techniques to pressure its victims into paying ransoms.

This breach underscores the critical need for robust security measures in the healthcare sector. Patients personal information must be safeguarded with the utmost vigilance, as the consequences of such incidents extend far beyond the immediate breach, said Erfan Shadabi, a cybersecurity expert with data security specialists comforte AG.

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Canadian dental service pays ransom in 8base ransomware attack

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A Canadian provincial government body tasked with providing dental services has paid a ransomware demand after having data stolen in an 8base ransomware attack.

The Alberta Dental Service Corp. said Aug. 10 that it detected the ransomware attack on July 26, when the body discovered that certain data pertaining to public dental benefits programs it administers was implicated in a recent cybersecurity incident. ADSC took measures to prevent authorized access and hired a third-party forensic firm. The corporation was also able to recover affected systems and data from backups with minimal loss.

It’s believed that the data of approximately 1.47 million individuals were compromised, including, in a small number of cases, personal banking information, with those having banking information stolen being offered complimentary credit monitoring services.

So far, the story sounds like a standard ransomware attack where the victim was fortunate to have proper backups and was able to restore service promptly, but then it gets interesting, since ADSC paid the ransom demanded by 8base.

IT World Canada reported that corporate president Lyle Best said in an interview on Friday that a payment was made as part of negotiations between the organization’s cyber insurance provider and forensic investigator. The 8base gang then showed proof the data was deleted as part of the deal.

The amount of the ransom paid was not disclosed. 8base has been active since March 2022 and uses a combination of encryption and “name-and-shame” tactics to force victims to pay a ransom.

According to a report issued by researchers from VMware Inc. in June, the gang operations have similarities to previous ransomware campaigns, suggesting a level of sophistication and experience despite the group’s recent emergence on the ransomware and hacking scene. Typical of most leading ransomware groups in 2023, 8Base operates a leak site where it discloses information about its victims and uses intimidation tactics to pressure victims into paying a ransom.

“This breach underscores the critical need for robust security measures in the healthcare sector,” Erfan Shadabi, a cybersecurity expert with data…

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Ransomware breach hits US dental insurance giant, loses data of 9 mn patients, ET CIO

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The personal information of nearly nine million people in the US has been compromised in an apparent ransomware attack on one of the country’s largest dental health insurers.

US-based dental insurance giant Managed Care of North America (MCNA) Dental, said: “On March 6, 2023, MCNA became aware of certain activity in our computer system that happened without our permission. We quickly took steps to stop that activity. We began an investigation right away.”

Moreover, the company learned that a criminal was able to see and take copies of some information in their computer system between February 26 and March 7, 2023.

According to a data breach notification filed with Maine‘s attorney general, the hack affected over 8.9 million MCNA Dental clients, reports TechCrunch.

The LockBit ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyberattack and claims to have published all of the files it stole from MCNA Dental after the company refused to pay a $10 million ransom demand.

According to a listing on LockBit’s dark web leak site, the notorious ransomware gang stole 700GB of data during the intrusion, the report said.

The stolen data includes a trove of personal information from patients, such as names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, and driver’s licences or other government-issued ID numbers.

Hackers also gained access to patient’s health insurance information, such as plan information and Medicaid ID numbers, as well as bill and insurance claim information, according to MCNA Dental.

Meanwhile, PharMerica, a leading pharmacy service provider in the US, which operates in more than 2,500 facilities across the country and offers over 3,100 pharmacy and healthcare programmes, has disclosed a data breach that compromised the personal information of nearly six million patients.

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Systems hack enables data theft, access for 8.9M MCNA Dental patients

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The health information tied to 8.9 million patients enrolled in Florida Healthy Kids Corporation (FHKC) and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s Medicaid insurance programs was stolen after a systems hack on MCNA, their dental benefits and services provider.

MCNA Dental works with state Medicaid agencies, Children’s Health Insurance Programs, private entities, and other insurance plans. The notice only refers to FHKC and Florida’s HCA.

With nearly 9 million impacted, the incident is now the largest healthcare data breach reported by a single entity so far this year, followed by Pharmerica (5.2 million patients), Regal Medical Group (3.3 million), Cerebral (3.18 million), and NationsBenefits (3.04 million).

Discovered on March 6, a threat actor gained access to the MCNA system to both access and exfiltrate copies of data stored in the network for several weeks between Feb. 26 and March 7. The investigation also found certain systems were “infected with malicious code.”

The stolen data varied by individual included full names, contact details, dates of birth, email addresses, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers or other government-issued ID numbers, health insurance plan data, conditions, diagnoses, treatments, and insurance claims. The data was tied to children and their guardians.

Upon discovery, MCNA contacted law enforcement and has been cooperating with their investigation. The benefits manager has since bolstered its systems security.

For FHKC, this is the second vendor-related breach affecting its patients in the last two years. Reported in early 2021, its vendor, Jelly Beans Communications Design, failed to patch multiple website vulnerabilities and enabled a threat actor to access and tamper with patient data for more than seven years. The incident was one of the largest healthcare data breaches in 2021.

Idaho Falls Community Hospital diverting patients after cyberattack

Mountain View Hospital, Idaho Falls Community Hospital, and its partner clinics are working to recover from an ongoing cyberattack in electronic health record downtime procedures, diverting ambulances and canceling some appointments to ensure patient safety.

Medford Radiology…

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