Multiple healthcare giants hit by data breaches affecting patient records, social security numbers, and even implanted cardiac devices | Daily Reports Online
- McKesson confirmed ShinyHunters breached its Snowflake and Salesforce, stealing 284M patient records
- Data includes names, contact info, SSNs, and health details; ransom demand was $55.2M
- Boston Scientific removed attackers but faces CRM device activation issues; attribution not confirmed
Last week, two major healthcare organizations suffered highly disruptive cyberattacks: Boston Scientific, and McKesson. We now have more details about both those attacks, and it seems at least one is the work of the infamous ShinyHunters extortion group.
McKesson confirmed having been struck by ShinyHunters, just a few days after the threat actor claimed responsibility. The group told The Register they broke into the company’s Snowflake and Salesforce instances and stole “millions of patients’ data”.
The company later issued a statement, saying the stolen data belonged to its Oncology & Multispecialty and Medical-Surgical business units. A spokesperson told The Register multiple employees were targeted with a vishing attack.
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The group told the publication it stole more than 284 million records of patient data and demanded $55.2 million from the victims. They are saying the stolen batch includes patient tames, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers (SSN), and details regarding their health condition. Whether the claims are true, and to what extent, remains to be seen after the investigation.
Boston Scientific, on the other hand, said it successfully removed the attackers from its infrastructure, but added that the investigation into the attack remains ongoing. It also said that new Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) devices, implanted after August 25, cannot be activated, and the data they generate will not automatically be transmitted to remote patient management systems.
“Newly implanted ICMs (insertable cardiac monitors) must be activated using the Boston Scientific Clinic Assistant app to enable the ICM to properly record episodes,” it explained. “New ICMs are unable to pair to the patient remote monitoring mobile phone, therefore available episode data recorded by the ICM will NOT be transmitted to the remote monitoring system until the ICM can be paired to the patient mobile app. Episodes will continue to be recorded by the ICM and can be transmitted to the remote monitoring system via an in-person interrogation with the Clinic Assistant app by selecting the “Interrogate” button.”
Via The Register
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