Russian hackers break into Australian medical clinic’s patient records, demand $4,000 ransom

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://thenextweb.com/au/2012/12/10/australian-medical-practice-patient-database-held-to-ransom-by-russian-hackers/

By Joel Falconer
The Next Web
10 Dec '12

A Gold Coast, Australia medical practice has been held to ransom by a 
group of Russian hackers. The hackers encrypted the practice’s patient 
database, rendering it unusable until decrypted.

The hackers have asked for the fairly low sum of $4,000, ABC News 
reports, noting that scammers tend to go for a low-yield, high-volume 
approach to increase their chances of a payout.

The practice in question is Miami Family Medical Centre, whose co-owner 
David Wood believed that anti-virus software was enough of a protection 
against intrusion and other security threats.

Cases like this should serve as a wake-up call for businesses to get 
proper security advice from professionals -- particularly those 
responsible for sensitive medical information. When you deal with 
information like this, ignorance is not an excuse.

[...]

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