Tag Archive for: hospital

Lurie Children’s Hospital faces computer network outage amid nationwide cybersecurity alert


The Chicago area’s largest children’s hospital is currently grappling with a computer network outage, coinciding with a nationwide alert regarding cyber attacks targeting hospitals.

This is not the first time Lurie Children’s Hospital has faced data-related issues. Last year, the hospital experienced a leak of social security numbers, names, birthdays, and addresses.

Concerns arose on Wednesday morning when parents noticed online irregularities. A message on the hospital’s website indicates an ongoing network outage affecting the internet, emails, phone service, and access to MyChart, a platform crucial for patients containing important health information, the ability to schedule doctor’s visits, and details on upcoming procedures.

Sources informed FOX 32 that a memo was circulated, stating that phone, email, and online medical records were disabled as a precautionary measure.

While Lurie Children’s Hospital has not confirmed any hacking or compromise of their systems, an expert sheds light on potential scenarios.

“It could have been a ransomware attack, where you have a group of individuals who targeted an institution, shut down their system and said, ‘hey if you don’t pay me X amount, we’re not going to turn things back on.’ It could be foreign nationals, quite possibly the Chinese. I know that’s been floated recently in testimony this week before Congress. Their efforts to penetrate and be able to disable US infrastructure is becoming quite rampant,” said Ross Rice, former FBI agent.

Efforts to obtain clarification from Lurie Children’s Hospital about the situation have been made, but as of now, there has been no response.

An alert on the hospital’s website states that they are actively working to resolve the issue.

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Rhysida ransomware group hacked Abdali Hospital in Jordan


Rhysida ransomware group hacked Abdali Hospital in Jordan

Pierluigi Paganini
December 26, 2023

The Rhysida ransomware group claimed to have hacked Abdali Hospital, a multi-specialty hospital located in Jordan.

Abdali Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital located in the modern development of Al-Abdali, Amman, Jordan. Abdali Hospital provides care to patients in numerous specialties. Apart from its general surgery section, it has specialists in orthopedics and rheumatology, gynecology, urology and endocrinology, neurology, nephrology, pulmonology, internal medicine, oncology, infectious disease, and anesthesiology. The hospital also offers aesthetic specialties including plastic surgery and dermatology. Finally, there is a women’s health center with a specialty in breast cancer.

The Rhysida ransomware group claimed to have breached the Abdali Hospital in Jordan and added it to the list of victims on its Tor leak site.

The group published images of stolen documents as proof of the hack. Leaked images include ID cards, contracts and more.

“With just 7 days on the clock, seize the opportunity to bid on exclusive, unique, and impressive data. Open your wallets and be ready to buy exclusive data. We sell only to one hand, no reselling, you will be the only owner!” reads the announcement published on the Tor leak site of the Rhysida ransomware group.

abdali Hospital

The ransomware group claims to have stolen a substantial trove of ‘sensitive data’ and is auctioning it for 10 BTC. As usual, the Rhysida ransomware operators plan to sell the stolen data to a single buyer. The gang will publicly release the data over the seven days following the announcement.

At the end of November, the ransomware group claimed to have hacked King Edward VII’s Hospital in London.

The group also claimed the hack of the British Library and China Energy Engineering Corporation.

The Rhysida ransomware group has been active since May 2023. According to the gang’s Tor leak site, at least 62 companies are victims of the operation.

The ransomware gang hit organizations in multiple industries, including the education, healthcare, manufacturing, information technology, and government sectors. The…

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GTA 6 hacker handed indefinite hospital order


Arion Kurtaj

18-year-old Arion Kurtaj was a key member of the notorious Lapsus$ cyber-crime gang

An 18-year-old hacker who leaked clips of a forthcoming Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game has been sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.

Arion Kurtaj from Oxford, who is autistic, was a key member of international gang Lapsus$.

The gang’s attacks on tech giants including Uber, Nvidia and Rockstar Games cost the firms nearly $10m.

The judge said Kurtaj’s skills and desire to commit cyber-crime meant he remained a high risk to the public.

He will remain at a secure hospital for life unless doctors deem him no longer a danger.

The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.

Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his acute autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts – not if he did so with criminal intent.

A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”

The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.

Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

Kurtaj stole 90 clips of the unreleased and hugely anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6.

He broke into the company’s internal Slack messaging system to declare “if Rockstar does not contact me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code”.

He then posted the clips and source code on a forum under the username TeaPotUberHacker.

He was rearrested and detained until his trial.

Earlier this month, the trailer for GTA 6 was released clocking up 128m views on YouTube in just 4 days.

In sentencing hearings, Kurtaj’s defence team argued that the success of the game’s trailer indicated that Kurtaj’s hack had not caused serious harm to the game developer and asked that this be factored into the sentencing.

But Her Honour Judge Lees said that there were real victims and real harm…

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Lovelace hospital patients concerned about ransomware impact


Joanne and her husband have been going to Lovelace hospital for years now, and they haven’t had problems in the past. However, they have been trying to see a doctor about her husband’s blood pressure, and she says this ransomware attack is stopping them from doing that.”Honestly, it’s very scary. I’m afraid. I’m nervous for my husband,” Joanne said. “We haven’t gotten one phone call back from the heart hospital from a nurse who said they were going to follow up and see what they could do.”The hospital’s parent company, Ardent Health Services, found out on Thanksgiving Day they had been hit by this attack, making it difficult, if not impossible, for both doctors and patients to access digital medical records. UNMH Chief Medical Officer Steve McLaughlin said it’s coming at a time of year when more people get sick, and hospitals already deal with overcapacity.”So it becomes a really busy time of the year for hospitals across the country,” McLaughlin said.Right now, UNMH is at 122% of capacity. Forty-six patients are in the emergency room waiting for beds elsewhere in the hospital. In addition, the Children’s Hospital is at 100% capacity. “Downstream ripple effects can last weeks or potentially even months,” Nathaniel Roybal, president of the Greater Albuquerque Medical Association, said. Lovelace said it has restored “key clinical and business systems,” which Roybal says is a step in the right direction. He said this ransomware incident reminds the entire city to step up and assist Lovelace in different ways right now.McLaughlin couldn’t share his thoughts on the ransomware attack but did say that if people are in need of serious medical attention, the best-case scenario is to go to a hospital that can help right now.”If an individual has a serious condition like that, we absolutely want them to come and see us,” McLaughlin said. “We are absolutely here to take care of them.”Joanne understands only so much can be done right now, but she’s also concerned for everyone else in need of serious medical attention. “Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done quickly now it’s going on three weeks,” Joanne said.

Joanne and her husband…

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