A Ukrainian hacker who stole more than 100,000 internal documents from Central Ohio Urology Group and posted a link on Twitter to a screen shot of patient data obtained, did so apparently to draw attention to claims that Pentagon research is poisoning people with "secret" injections, according to DataBreaches.net.
There is no evidence, the article notes, that Central Ohio Urology Group, which has 24 locations in the region, is involved in any such activity. The hacker loaded more than 156GB of data to a Google Drive, including more than 46,600 Word documents and 54,500 PDF documents, ZDNet reports.
The tweeted screenshot showed personal health records from 2013-2014 containing roughly two dozen patient names, addresses, phone numbers, insurance providers and diagnoses. The Columbus Dispatch reached two of the patients, who verified that the records were real. The total number of patient records stolen isn’t clear.
“We’re investigating to the fullest of our abilities,” said a man who identified himself to the Dispatch as the urology group’s CIO, but declined to give his name.
Most of the stolen files were internal, including non-password protected Excel documents of surgeries that contained doctor names, times of procedures and drugs used, according to ZDNet.
U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Georgia, part of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, is researching combat-associated infections in the Caucasus region.
An analysis of the hack by CyberWarNews.info also found evidence of ransomware, possibly from a previous breach.
To learn more:
- read the DataBreaches.net story
- here's the ZDNet article
- check out the Columbus Dispatch piece
- here’s the CyberWarNews.info report