TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Hackers claimed to have stolen personal records from the state's prescription-drug database and are demanding a $10 million ransom, media reports say. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state police are searching for the hackers, the Washington Post reported. The hackers said they'd accessed 8 million patient records and 35 million prescriptions collected by the state's Prescription Monitoring Program. A state official told the paper that the data had been backed up and the files had been secured. State officials had learned on April 30 that the breach had occurred, the paper said, quoting the Website wikileaks.org. The ransom deadline passed on Thursday, the paper reported. The Post quoted Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as calling the hack "an intentional criminal act ... by somebody who was trying to harm others. ... There are breaches that happen by accident or glitches that you try to work out. It's difficult to foil every criminal that may want to do something against you." The database is designed to help doctors and pharmacies track and reduce the abuse and illegal sale of painkillers that are also controlled substances, the Washington Post reported
Shouldn't that be extended to the state employees responsible for the security of the medical records? After all, they used force of law to compel patients to compromise their privacy, then displayed extreme negligence by not bothering to secure them. No public records of individuals should be on any computer anywhere.
im sure this has happened 100s of times in businesses. steal a companys technology via hacking and hold it for ransom or sell it to its competitor. it will never get reported though