The Florida Department of Health told FOX 35 in Orlando about its investigation of a cyberattack that impacted its Vital Statistics System, which the department uses for processing birth and death certificates. The system disruption has caused difficulties for funeral homes throughout the state for a few weeks. Some funeral homes delayed their services or were compelled to physically go to healthcare companies to obtain signed printed copies of death certificates.
The Department of Health revealed little information concerning the attack although this looks like a ransomware attack with the extraction of a large amount of data files, which potentially includes PHI. The RansomHub group professed to be responsible for the cyberattack and stated it had stolen from the Department about 100 gigabytes of data and began leaking the stolen information because no ransom was paid on or before the set deadline, which is July 1, 2024. The Department of Health did not comment to verify the group’s statements nor the scope of any security breach.
The inability to pay the ransom demand is expected as Florida revised its State Cybersecurity Act to forbid state institutions, counties, and cities that encounter a ransomware attack to pay or follow a ransom demand. The prohibition on ransom payments became effective on July 1, 2022.
There is no need to question the authenticity of the hacking group’s claims of data theft. RansomHub has done a lot of attacks in the U.S.A., which include attacks on healthcare companies and federal departments. The group was likewise indirectly mixed up in the ransomware attack on Change Healthcare in February, having gotten the stolen data during the attack by a BlackCat ransomware group affiliate. Then BlackCat committed an exit fraud, getting the $22 million ransom without paying the affiliate’s share of the ransom collected.