Recently cybercriminals attacked Golden Heart Administrative Professionals. Golden Heart is a company based in Fairbanks, Alaska that partnered with several healthcare institutions in the state of Alaska and is primarily a billing company.
Golden Heart notified more than 40,000 of its clients about their Protected Health Information (PHI) falling into the dirty hands of hackers who were involved in a ransomware attack.
Ransomware removal stated that the ransomware made its way to the systems through a download in the servers of Golden Heart. The affected server was storage and processing system for PHI. An official statement by Golden Heart confirmed that the data of its clients was compromised.
According to ransomware removal experts, law enforcement agencies have received the news of the breach and are collaborating to restore the files. Ransomware removal analysts believe this attack to be the biggest of its magnitude in the month of July while they also noted that this was the second reported instance of an organization in the healthcare industry to be attacked in Alaska.
Other Attacks in the Healthcare Industry
Previously in the beginning of July, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services was the unfortunate victim of a cyber attack as their systems were affected by a malware. Ransomware removal experts explained that a trojan by the name of Zeus attacked their PCs and got a hold of protected health information of at least 500 people. These attacks raise a question mark on the reports that were claiming ransomware attacks to be decreasing.
Other victims in the healthcare industry include LabCorp Diagnostics which was ravaged by the notorious SamSam Ransomware. It was estimated that millions of patients’ data was compromised in the attack.
Similarly, Cass Regional Medical Center was also affected by a ransomware as its communications and patient record system was compromised. As a result ambulances had to be diverted to different locations.
