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MEDIA
A US university has begun notifying victims of a serious data breach following a cyber attack by the Interlock ransomware gang.
Texas Tech University has confirmed that patient data from two health sciences centres (HSCs) have been impacted by a ransomware attack that occurred throughout September 2024.
According to reports, 1.4 million patients from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso have had their data published on the darknet by the Interlock ransomware gang.
“In September 2024, the HSCs identified issues that resulted in a temporary disruption to some computer systems and applications. Immediately after identifying these issues, the HSCs took steps to ensure the security of the network and began an investigation,” Texas Tech University said in an incident update on its website.
“The investigation confirmed that a cyber security event caused the technology issues, resulting in access to or removal of certain files and folders from the HSCs’ network between September 17 and September 29, 2024. As a result, the HSCs conducted a detailed review of the systems involved to determine what information they may contain and to whom it belongs. “
According to Texas Tech, the compromised data includes “name, date of birth, address, Social Security number, driver’s license number, government-issued identification number, financial account information, health insurance information and medical information, including medical records numbers, billing/claims data and diagnosis and treatment information”.
Texas Tech University is offering the usual boilerplate access to free credit reporting under US law, and the university is currently working with “external specialists” to further investigate the issue.
The update from Texas Tech University comes after the Interlock ransomware gang claimed responsibility for the hack on 27 October 2024.
“We present to you a large collection of confidential documents, including patient data, medical research, a large set of SQL databases,” the hackers said on their darknet leak site.
The total amount of data stolen in the attack was 2.63 terabytes and totalled 2,102,989 files in more than 100,000 folders. The data shared as evidence of the hack includes scans of driver’s licenses, clinical reports, passport scans, tax files, and medical imaging.
The entire dataset has since been published and includes folders belonging to specific doctors, admissions data, and comprehensive medical records.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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