Posted on 05/05/2009 4:39:41 PM PDT by Flavius
Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents.
Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
I’m sure glad Obama wants to put all our medical records on the net. /sarc
BO and his socialist minions will do anything to nationalize health care!
well it makes sense
if everyone records are on web site
you can search your symptoms and self diagnose
presto free health care
Why pay ransom when all your critical files are safely backed up somewhere?
No, wait. This is a government operation.
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Over_8M_Virginian_patient_records_held_to_ransom,_30_Apr_2009
“Over 8M Virginian patient records held to ransom, 30 Apr 2009”
May 3, 2009
Summary
SNIPPET: “On Thursday, April 30, the secure site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) was replaced with a $US10M ransom demand:
“I have your shit! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password.”
The site, https://www.pmp.dhp.virginia.gov/pmpwebcenter/login.aspx appears to have been entirely disabled and is presently unavailable.
The linked file provides the full ransom message.”
ping
Seems they could do a restore from the most recent backup, and lockout the ‘hackers’.
According to the source, the backups seem to be missing as well....
Sadly I think that the government will take over the internet and "We the People" may no longer have access to it.
To the VA victims, I'm so sorry this happened to you and hope that all will be straightened out without much disruption in your lives.
Can they do this to Chase and Bank of Americ? Sorry Clyde but we can’t let you withdraw $1000 even though you say you have $5000 in your account
My wife just told me, in addition to prescription drug abuse, this database contains the PERSONAL information of each and every licensed health care professional in the state! (she’s one of them)
This will be used to push the idea of government rule of the internet. Where they want to be able to shut it down in the threat of a cyber attack.
Government operation.... hmmmm
The Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program consists of pharmacies reporting all individuals who receive controlled drugs, like percocet and morphine, to a central data base. There prescribers can gain access to see how much of a controlled substance a patient has received.
It seems the hackers target was more towards law enforcement than patient privacy.
>>>> It seems the hackers target was more towards law enforcement than patient privacy. <<<<
Have you read the hackers’ notice which is posted on Wikileaks?
They’re threatening to sell the patient info.
It’s all about money, not revenge.
True, but CeeBass's comment, as I read it, was directed at the database, not the hackers. Namely, that the purpose of the database was law enforcement, not patient care.
Of course, those in favor of prescription laws might argue that the database indirectly affects patient welfare. E.g., if a certain patient's access to Oxycontin had been effectively restricted, he might not need a cochlear implant, although his back might still be hurting.
ping!
Maybe that’s why it was done—to prove a point?
Every patient's personal demographic data too.
Looks like a probable EFL (English First Language) hacker.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.