The Qilin ransomware gang, notoriously known for showing no mercy to its targets, has claimed responsibility for attacks on Japan’s Utsunomiya Central Clinic (UCC), a cancer treatment facility, and Rockhill Women’s Care, an all-female-owned gynecology and female healthcare facility located in Kansas City.
The UCC was hacked on February 10 and confirmed that ransomware had hit it on February 18. The attack cost the clinic nearly 140GB of files containing data on almost 300,000 people, including personally identifiable information, medical histories, treatment details, and images from scans and procedures. A sample of this information is already up on Qilin’s data leak website with the rest of the data on sale. The targeted system held personal data from patients and staff, including doctors, nurses, and non-medical employees.
Rockhill Women’s Care didn’t fare any better either. The hackers stole nearly 20 GB of data, including patients’ full names, ages, addresses, phone numbers, partial medical histories, treatment information, details of current conditions, and even their insurance companies. The Register reports that the clinic hasn’t officially disclosed the incident as a ransomware attack or even a cybersecurity event, but it did alert social media followers of an unscheduled closure that lasted two days due to “technical difficulties.”
The facility’s website still claims that they’re working through technical difficulties, but they are open and seeing patients for scheduled appointments. Aside from this notice, there has been no official report of a cyberattack or service disruption from the healthcare facility.
As for the hackers, the Qilin ransomware group is believed to be Russian in origin and almost exclusively targets healthcare organisations. Due to the urgent nature of work in healthcare, organisations often don’t have the time to orchestrate a proper IT response, often leading to quick ransom payouts. Healthcare organisations are also not the best protected against threats.
Qilin caused the infamous attack on NHS pathology services supplier, crippling UK’s healthcare response for weeks. The breach also resulted in a £6.09 million fine for Advanced Computer Software Group Ltd, NHS’ IT service provider. Nearly 82,946 people’s personal information was exposed in the breach. Its other victims are also in or around the healthcare system, including social welfare company The Big Issue, set up to help homeless people.
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