IT Curmudgeon

On April 30, 2009, a ransom note appeared on the web site of the Virginia Department of Health Professions. Private patient information protected by HIPAA was accessed by professionals using the site to prevent abuse of prescription narcotic drugs. Hackers claimed to have stolen data from 8 million patient records and 35 million prescriptions, and they demanded $10 million to prevent them from selling the data "on the open market" by Thursday, May 7.

Virgina and federal law enforcement officials admitted to searching for individuals who demanded the ransom, and who may have obtained the illegal private medical records.

The May 7 deadline given by the hacker or hackers apparently came and went without incident. There will be more news on this in coming days.

This act seems ironic because it's foolish of the hackers to notify and taunt authorities in such an open and public way. My money is on the successful capture and arrest of the perpetrator or perpetrators, simply because data forensics and computer criminal investigation science is becoming very sophisticated these days.