Harm patients if the medical facilities don’t pay
Extortionists are now threatening to harm hospital patients if the medical facilities don’t pay the thieves’ ransom demands. They do this by reporting bomb threats or other fictitious reports to the police, causing heavily armed police to come up at victims’ houses.
Criminals vowed to turn on the patients directly after breaking into the IT system of Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in November and taking medical documents, including Social Security numbers, diagnoses, and lab results.
Understanding the reasons
The idea seems to be that the US hospital will be under pressure to pay up and stop the extortion because of those patients and the media coverage of any swatting. Similar tactics are used by other groups targeting IT service providers: in addition to extorting the suppliers, they often threaten or harass the customers of those companies.
“Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center was aware of cyber criminals issuing swatting threats and immediately notified the FBI and Seattle police, who notified the local police,” a representative said. “The FBI, as part of its investigation into the cybersecurity incident, also investigated these threats.”
The cancer center refuses to respond to further questions regarding the threats. The center has more than ten clinics in th
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