(Mirror Daily, United States) – A cyber criminal going by the name of “thedarkoverlord” is trying to monetize more than 650,000 patient records he reportedly had stolen from three healthcare organizations on the dark web. He is currently also trying to extort money from the said organizations to keep his mouth shut.
The leaked patient records include names, physical addresses, Social Security numbers, and more. The data could be used by other fraudsters for other wrongdoings.
Thedarkoverlord explained that he managed to get into the organization’s computer systems by exploiting a weakness in their Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). He commented on the bug and said that one needs to be very precise to exploit it.
He even posted screenshots proving he was indeed inside the systems. The leaked data contain full names, insurance information, home and e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers of 655,000 patients. The data can be later used by other thieves to take out loans or open lines of credit.
The hacker said that the hacked healthcare organizations are form Missouri (48,000 leaked patient records), Central U.S. (210,000 patient records), and Georgia (397,000 records). He declined to reveal the names of the institutions because he is currently trying to extort ransom from them.
The hacker evaluated Georgia’s Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance records to $100,000. He said on hackers’ forum that one client was especially interested in those records alone.
For the rest of the Georgia databse he demands nearly 608 bitcoins or about $398,390. He also provided details on the hack at the organization: reportedly he got access to usernames and passwords saved in plaintext from a misconfigured internal network.
For the database from the Central U.S. organization he wants 303 bitcoins, while for the Missouri database he plans to get 152 bitcoins or nearly $10,000. He also pledged to sell only unique copies of the databases to his clients.
He recently told a tech news outlet that the amount of ransom he is seeking is “modest” compared to the impact on patients and organizations after he decides to make patient data public.
He even sent a public note to affected organizations advising them to take an advantage of the opportunity to cover the hack up for a “small fee.” He also threatened them that he had “a lot more” in store.
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