News has broken out that hackers have published more than 25,000 private photos and private data from patients of a Lithuanian cosmetic surgery. The images were made public on Tuesday by a hacking group calling themselves “Tsar Team”, which broke into the servers of the Grozio Chirurgija clinic earlier this year and demanded ransoms from the clinic’s clients in more than 60 countries around the world, including the UK. Tim Erlin, VP at AlienVault commented below.
Tim Erlin, VP at Tripwire:
“The idea of blackmailing individuals with disclosure of personal information certainly isn’t new, though this may be the first time that we’ve seen that tactic employed with personal medical data stolen as part of a cyber attack.
Healthcare providers, whether small or large, need to be aware of the threats they face from cyber attack. Whether part of a large hospital system or a single clinic, the data these organizations have is valuable to criminals.
All healthcare providers should take the time to review not only their tools and processes for defense, but also their incident response plans. The worst time to create an incident response plan is during an attack.”
