Arkansas Medical Facility Faces Potential Breach After Ransomware Attack
An estimated 128,000 patient files may have been compromised as a result of being the victim of a ransomware hit. In July, the Arkansas Oral Facial Surgery Center in Fayetteville was struck with ransomware. Although the malicious attack was identified promptly, there were still patient files, x-ray images and documents that were left encrypted. According to HIPAA Journal, the patient data breached may include patient names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, insurance information, medical diagnosis, and treatment information.
Although, whether or not the data was actually taken by the hackers remains unclear. It is believed the goal of the attack was to extort funds from surgery center. However, the medical facility has yet to pay any ransom demands. Currently, all of the patient data that was impacted by the ransomware attack, remains encrypted. Plans to recover the data have not been released.
Arkansas Oral Facial Surgery Center has offered free credit monitoring services to all patients potentially impacted. They have also encouraged these individuals to be on the lookout for phishing scams, and stated they would not be requesting personal information through emails or by phone.
Other Ransomware Attacks
To see a full list of ransomware attacks that have taken place in 2017, you can click here. We have also created a ransomware map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.
