Hacking Recent Events Affect the Florida Department of Health

Introduction

Cybercriminals may now possess some of the most private documents in the State of Florida.
If the state doesn’t pay, the group threatens to expose 100 terabytes of data from the Florida Department of Health (F-DOH).This is the one thing that the Florida Department of Health, the City of Jacksonville Beach, and the Ascension Health Care System have. Cybercriminals have breached them.

The I-TEAM discovered that the most recent breach targeted F-DOH’s critical statistical data.
Berkeley Varitronics CEO Scott Shoberg is an expert in cybersecurity. He claims that hackers have frequently targeted medical and health-related data.

“They are aware of when data is rich, but what does that really mean? Any kind of medical documentation. Their personal identities make them extraordinarily wealthy. It might be your COVID test, or it could be a prescription drug you’re taking. All of those codes and other items can be utilized to genuinely submit fictitious insurance company claims and send them bills in an attempt to collect large sums of money. Additionally, it’s challenging for insurance firms to keep up with it, according to Shoberg.

The F-DOH has confirmed only the attack’s impact on the vital statistics system which issues birth and death certificates . The Miami Herald claims that because they frequently use that system, the state’s funeral homes and tax collector offices have also been impacted.
All 67 health departments, licensed physicians, nurses, and other health-related professions are under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Health.

Consequences of the Attack

“Clearly, there was a vulnerability or weakness that was taken advantage of. However, surprise! The majority of government systems not all of them, but the majority of them have a variety of weaknesses, according to Shoberg. From the perspective of cybersecurity, they must always get it right. From the perspective of a cybercriminal, though. They need to get it correct once. It might have begun with a harmless phishing attempt.

Someone clicked on something there possibly a government employee or someone from a hospital and exclaimed, “Oh, what’s this?” I didn’t know it was a redirect. At this point, it downloads malware specifically, ransomware.

Reporters questioned residents about the hack and their opinions on the state government’s obligation to protect the privacy of Floridians’ most sensitive data.
Unfortunately, it’s an open target. Briee Hansen stated that the government needs to intervene and provide a little more funds for cyber security because it’s crucial but underfunded.

Operational Impact

Over the past three years, a state agency hack has exposed the data of over 10 million Floridians, according to an annual report submitted by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Remember that cyberattacks have also affected private businesses. In recent months, Ticketmaster, AT&T, and Truist are a few well-known ones.

Meanwhile, because the state’s online system is presently unavailable, a funeral director we contacted with informed us that in order to perform a burial, they must go to the healthcare provider and obtain a signed copy of a death certificate.