Blackmail threats plague Seattle cancer patients following recent data breach at Fred Hutch
Did you hear about the unfortunate incident at the famous cancer hospital in the US, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center? It’s been a dreadful affair. Alongside the difficulty they had with some irksome data breach last month, the poor patients have now been dealt another blow. Ah, the perils of modern life, eh?
Some of them are receiving downright sinister emails, threatening to spill their beans if the recipients don’t cough up some dosh. The sharpers even claim the hospital itself had a chance to shield its data, but chose to play hardball – presumably over some sort of payment.
Interesting thing is, most boffins would advise victims not to dance to the pipers’ tune and pay any extortion demands. So if the Hutchinson lot did receive a demand and decided to play dead, it wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
However, what does seem a touch peculiar, and I dare say almost benevolent, is that these blackmailers are only asking patients for a mere $50 to have their confidential info wiped from the grimy corners of the dark web. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems an unusually cheap price ticket for digital silence, doesn’t it? As one chap quite rightly pointed out: Can we even trust a felon in the first place?
The hospital itself has been quite forthcoming, apologising to aggrieved patients and advising them not to shell out any pennies in the face of ransom. They were also told to report these knavish antics to the good people at the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, and then for good measure, just block the sender and bin the message.
It’s been a bit of a head-scratcher, by all accounts. No signs of the purported data leaks on the dark web or otherwise. Making it worse, it’s not only old Hutch’s patients who’ve been caught up in the blight; some folks under the care of UW Medicine have also been troubled with these blustering emails.
Fred Hutchinson and the University of Washington’s Medicine program are thick as thieves, you see. They work closely together on their cancer research efforts, hence the spread of the fallout. The sharp minds at the hospital have assured that they’re assessing the situation with a forensic team and will directly write to anyone whose information got mixed up in the mess. The silver lining: patient care has not been disrupted in any way and the clinic remains open.
The whole shebang just makes you bite your nails a bit, doesn’t it? Going to the hospital for care and coming out with a receipt for a threat. Mind you, they’ve been handling it all pretty well – deploying forensic teams and the like. It does make you wonder though, what’s next in this endless digital rat race? How safe are we really?
by Parker Bytes