Akumin Acknowledges Only One Cyber Attack, Despite Claims of Two Occurrences in October and November

Hi there! Gather around folks to hear the latest digital drama that unfolded back in October, the one involving Akumin, a healthcare company. Picture this, a fine morning on October 25th, when a ripple of disturbance spread across Akumin’s network, leaving their diagnostic services in a dizzying state at several locations. Turns out, someone was trying to get friendly with their system, and not in a good way.

As it happened, this newfound friendship was the work of a notorious criminal group, BlackSuit, who dropped a ransomware bomb onto Akumin. To make things even juicier, this all happened when Akumin were already juggling a bankruptcy situation. Talk about struggling to brave the storm, eh!

Now you’d think that once they tackled their financial conundrum, things would loosen up a bit, right? Wrong! The digital misfortune wasn’t done with them yet. This time around, our man Marco over at SuspectFile shed some light on a series of events that sprung upon poor Akumin. Not one, but two cyber attacks in quick succession shook Akumin to its core. The second sneaky assault emerged early in November, carried out by the ransomware hounds, BianLian. This bunch took it a step further, boasting about their conquest of highly sensitive docs amounting to a whopping 5TB of data.

Despite all that, Akumin decided to keep hush about the second cyber-assault. On the 10th of November, they chirped about reviving their majority systems and resumption of patient care, with appointments crossing the chalk line again.

By November 10th, Akumin had managed to pull themselves together, allowing patients to retrieve a fair chunk of their health documentation. Nevertheless, due to the varying timelines of their system restoration, not every bit of past imaging was accessible.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting, folks! According to the good folks over at SuspectFile, this BianLian lot had already wreaked havoc in Akumin’s IT domain, siphoning off substantial data, early in November. Not surprisingly, this second attack went unacknowledged by Akumin.

Their December 6th update reassured folks about the ongoing review of the situation. They demonstrated alarm about unauthorised copying risk on certain system files. However, suspiciously, no word about a second attack was spoken.

Inquiring minds turned towards BlackSuit to confirm the October attack, but any form of response was as elusive as smoke. Similarly, Akumin stayed tight-lipped about BianLian’s claims. Attempts at reaching out to Akumin or their Data Compliance fell on deaf ears.

Adding further intrigue, BianLian didn’t present any proof of their claims, and no leaked data could be detected. Now, whether Akumin’s wall of silence will finally crumble or whether BianLian will furnish any proof, that’s anybody’s guess. So, like I said folks, it’s all a high-octane digital drama ripe with secrecy and intrigue. Let’s see how it unfolds, shall we?

by Parker Bytes