Integris Health Alerts Patients About Hack, Advises Against Engaging With Hackers

Right, so, let’s have a natter about something quite intriguing that happened recently across the pond in Oklahoma – you know, that place where the wind comes sweeping down the plain? This isn’t about the weather though, but something much colder – a rather nasty cyberattack on a place called Integris Health, the biggest non-profit, locally-owned health network in the state.

Now, picture this – it’s November 28, everyone’s minding their own business when some sly cyber criminals (the powers-that-be aren’t revealing who exactly) decide to have a bit of a nosy through some files. The peculiar thing here is, they didn’t seem to fancy locking any files up (or ‘encrypting’, as the tech boffins might put it), but did a sneaky pivot and started having a right go at the patients instead.

This isn’t your usual, run-of-the-mill attack – these cyber villains took it a step further and actually started contacting the patients directly, which as you can probably imagine, wasn’t a great start to the festive period for the good folk over at Integris. They got wind of this on Christmas Eve and immediately began reaching out to their patients to give ’em the bad news.

Now, to be fair to Integris, once they realised they had an e-vandal in their system, they immediately started to secure the environment (whatever that means) and launched an investigation. The personal information that had a chance of being in the wrong hands included things like names, birthdates, contact details, national insurance numbers – the kind of stuff anyone would want to keep under wraps.

You’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s just rotten!” – rightly so! But, wait there’s more. The villains are alleged to be sending extortion messages to patients and claims have been made about patient data being available for viewing or purchase on a certain shady website. Not exactly tea and biscuits, is it?

To the credit of Integris, they acted promptly and on the same day they learned about these shenanigans, they put up an alert for their patients and advised them not to respond, contact the sender, or follow any instructions from such shady communications.

But here’s the rub – we still don’t know who’s behind all this. The name being thrown around is either a rebrand or perhaps a solo act. Just like a poorly written detective novel, we’ll have to wait for further information to know more.

So be vigilant out there, folks. Whether we’re talking health or cyber wellbeing, prevention is always better than cure. And remember, not everyone who contacts you deserves a response, especially not the devious cyber criminals who’d look to spoil your day.

by Parker Bytes