Hospitals sue ransomware group

A healthcare coalition comprising two hospitals and an orthopedic group filed a lawsuit against unidentified individuals associated with the ransomware group LockBit, BankInfoSecurity reported Jan. 4. 

Carthage (N.Y.) Area Hospital, Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and Watertown, N.Y.-based North Country Orthopaedic Group filed a lawsuit Nov. 29 alleging that the unknown individuals "conspired to carry out the complex cybercrime and movement of stolen assets."

According to the publication, the lawsuit against the LockBit members was initiated to empower the hospital group, known as North Star Health Alliance, to issue a subpoena compelling Boston-based cloud storage firm Wasabi Technologies to surrender data that LockBit stole from the hospital group in a data breach that took place on Aug. 31. 

According to the lawsuit, during the breach, the hackers associated with LockBit infiltrated the IT infrastructure of the hospital group, extracted data and then moved the information to a cloud server owned and operated by Wasabi.

The hospitals and orthopedic group are seeking injunction relief to prohibit the access, transfer or duplication of the exfiltrated data. Additionally, they request a mandate that, upon the return of the stolen data to the hospital group, all remaining copies of the stolen data must be eradicated.

The hospitals say they need the data returned in order to notify the patients impacted by the breach. 

Wasabi told the publication it "is committed to complying with all relevant regulatory requests," and that it could not comment on ongoing legal matters.

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