A malicious hacker is selling 10 million patient records after claiming to have stolen them. The hacker, who goes by the moniker ‘thedarkoverlord’ is seeking 750 bitcoins for the data trove, or about half a million dollars in current exchange rates.
A data trove that includes names, addresses, dates of birth and SSN (Social Security Numbers) of some 10 million individuals have been put up for sale by a hacker, simply known as “thedarkoverlord.”
The large trove of data is being sold in four separate batches, the biggest one containing 9.3 million patient records that was directly stolen from a US health insurance provider.
A little-known vulnerability that exists within the Remote Desktop Protocol was exploited, according to thedarkoverlord, to break into the systems and network belonging to the insurance provider.
Three other batches contain a total of 655,000 patient records, also stemming from healthcare breaches targeting industry firms in Atlanta, Georgia, Farmington, Missouri and another Midwestern city.
Amazingly, the sales listing revealed that the hacker had used “readily available plain text” usernames and passwords as credentials to gain access to the networks.
Related read: Survey Shows 81% of Healthcare Organizations Suffered Cyberattacks
PC World tried communicating with the thedarkoverlord, who declined to answer or field any questions unless he was paid. Altogether, the hacker is demanding a total of 1,280 bitcoins for the stolen data.
As revealed by Motherboard, the hacker stated:
A modest amount compared to the damage that will be caused to the organizations when I decide to publicly leak the victims.
He withheld the names of the organizations he stole the data from, as it is revealed that he threatened each and every one with a ransom demand.
In his sales hubris, the hacker also told the publication that the data can be used for identity theft, enabling loan fraud, getting credit loans and opening bank accounts. The stolen information is sold as a data dump on the Real Deal marketplace, a popular darknet market for stolen data.
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