Rhysida wants 3.4 million dollars after attacking childrens hospital

Hello folks,

We have an update now on the Chicago children’s hospital who has been down now for a good majority of the month. This is because of a Cyber Attack.

The following was boosted by Brian Krebs.

BrianKrebs: Boosting Lesley Carhart :unverified: (hacks4pancakes): I do ransomware response for really critical infrastructure – like electric power, water, transit systems, manufacturing, oil for a living. I have to be mostly be emotionally detached, even when lives are at risk – that’s triage.

Sometimes, when nobody gets hurt I even raise an eyebrow or raise a glass at a new tactic. But let’s make one thing clear:

If you ransom a children’s cancer hospital, you are irredeemable scum. You know exactly what you’re doing, and you chose to potentially delay or disrupt treatment for suffering little kids.

https://therecord.media/lurie-childrens-hospital-chicago-ransomware-rhysida?&web_view=true

The article is titled: Ransomware gang seeks $3.4 million after attacking children’s hospital.

A ransomware gang is seeking $3.4 million after attacking a children’s hospital in Chicago, forcing staff to resort to manual processes to provide care to patients.

The attack on Lurie Children’s Hospital was announced earlier this month, when officials said they had been forced to take their entire network offline due to an unspecified “cybersecurity matter.”

The Rhysida ransomware-as-a-service group — which emerged in May last year, and has previously disrupted 16 hospitals across the U.S. — has now listed Lurie on its darknet extortion site.

We’ve been watching this unfold, and while I’m not surprised, this is beyond repair.

What has the hospital done to you? Do you realize that this hospital is trying to care for children that may or may not make it? I’m not trying to be negative here, but when I read the above boost, I could feel my blood boil. Although this does not surprise me, it took way too long for anyone to find out the truth.

Hospital staff can’t even call anyone, nobody can call in to get any appointments, and this is what you ask for?

According to a statement on Lurie’s website last updated on February 22, work is ongoing to recover the hospital’s systems and the MyChart electronic records system is still down.

The article also states:

According to a statement on Lurie’s website last updated on February 22, work is ongoing to recover the hospital’s systems and the MyChart electronic records system is still down.

So now people need to bring a list of medication, identification cards, and anything else they need every time they are there to get information or the care they need.

I loved the statement made years ago where gangs vowed that they would not attack infrastructure, but then as expected, went back on their word. This was in the hype of Covid. In this blog post talking about a hospital being attacked I said that it was time for actors to find something to do. This is because we were still learning about Covid, and people couldn’t be tested. The only way in the early days was to go to the hospital. Now, we can do it at home. I did mine at the doctors office.

This was something short lived, and while the Pandemic has shifted, actors still go after places that may not even have the funding, let alone the ability to pay anything.

I know this group is still relatively new, but they are brazen and it seems like if they’re successful, this is the beginning for them as public coverage.

The article continues:

“As a reminder, please bring your printed insurance card to each appointment and also bring your child’s medication bottles or a complete list of their current medications,” states Lurie’s website.

Yeah, bring everything to all your appointments so it could possibly get snatched by someone who may be there unknowing to you to gather information while the hospital is too busy verifying things that they should already know. You never know these days., do you?

Finally,

Last August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a warning about the Rhysida group, noting that it appeared to be increasing its attacks targeting the healthcare sector.

That’s nice. I don’t remember when we first covered this group, but its time that the hospital decides they will not pay, and they continue to work dilligently to get their stuff back up and running.

Further reading

Reseda ransomware decrypted

Another Children’s hospital gets attacked