Of all the ransomware stories I have read in the news, this one feels like the saddest most terrifying one. Talking to a therapist is one of those protected, inviolable communications people still have left in a world where privacy is harder and harder to come by. When all doors close, this one is still open. To have this space invaded by a ransomware exploit is wrong at more levels than I can count.
Besides the data of 300 patients, “RANSOM_MAN” made a 10.9GB TAR file available through their server on the morning of October 23. It’s not clear what it was, but if it included the full patient database, then it’s feasible that many people could have downloaded it, acquiring the tools to extort people. One concern is that it’s hard to determine how far this data has already spread and cybercrime officials could find themselves in a game of whack-a-mole for years. A few hours after it was uploaded, the file disappeared.
Uploading a person's most intimate thoughts and confessions for public access is an assault to their soul.
“You expect any company recommended by a public-sector hospital to have secure systems to protect their data,” Puro says. “The fact that someone, somewhere knows about my emotions and can read my intimate files is disturbing, but this also affects my wife and children. Somebody knows, for example, how they’ve reacted to my cancer.”
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