While the point of most
data breaches is to get in and out of a server with sensitive data as soon as possible without being detected, a group of criminals recently took a different tack.
A medical facility known as The Surgeons of Lake County, based in Illinois, was recently hit with a massive data security breach that got into a computer network that stored emails and medical records, according to a report from
the company. But instead of the usual treatment, hackers instead encrypted all the information themselves while it was still on the server and posted a ransom note, asking for money in exchange for the password.
For its part, Surgeons did not cave to demands, and instead contacted law enforcement, the report said. Exposed information in the breach included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card data, and medical information.
Ondrej Krehel, the chief information security officer for
Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways hackers can gain access to consumers' personal information, and what companies can do to better protect that data.
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