Hackers Selling Personal Data Of 150,000 Patients From TN Hospital On Dark Web

After a cyberattack on AIIMS knocked out its servers, a threat actor is selling medical records of patients of a Tamil Nadu-based multispecialty hospital.

A report released by CloudSEK claims that patient data of Sree Saran Medical Centre in on sale by a threat actor. On November 22, 2022, CloudSEK discovered a post that advertised the sale of sensitive data sourced from Three Cube IT Lab India – a Chennai-based provider of business and consulting services.

“We can term this incident as a Supply Chain Attack, since the IT Vendor of the Hospital, in this case Three Cube IT Lab, was targeted first. Using the access to the vendor’s systems as initial foothold, the threat actor was able to exfiltrate Personally identifiable information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) of their hospital clients,” said Noel Varghese, Threat Analyst, CloudSEK.

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The seller shared a sample as proof for potential buyers, showing data records dated from the years 2007-2011. The data set of 150,000 records of patients’ information includes their name, guardian name, date of birth, doctor’s details, and address information.

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The data has been put on sale on popular cybercrime forums as well as on a Telegram channel that is frequented by threat actors. 

Also read: Explained: What’s Happening At AIIMS After Sensitive Ransomware Attack?

The database is on sale for $100 (Rs. 8,100), suggesting that multiple copies would be sold. For buyers seeking exclusive ownership, the price is $300 (Rs. 24,300). If the owner wants to resell the database, the price is set at $400 (Rs. 32,531).

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“We assess with low confidence and no direct proof that Three Cube IT may be a software vendor for Sree Saran Medical Center,” CloudSEK wrote in its report.

Also read: Hackers Demand Rs 200 Crore In Crypto From AIIMS Delhi As Server Remains Down For 7th Day

“Organizations need to assess the security rating of their vendors, ensure that they meet compliance requirements and mitigate potential threats that could lead to a cyber incident with greater scope of risk. We are not unsure if more clients could be affected, though it’s a possibility,” Varghese said.

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