• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

What you guys think of this ?

H

hey_moe

Retired SOH Administrator
The state has refused to pay the $10M ransom demand


Days after it was revealed a hacker successfully compromised the Virginia Health database and stole records of more than 8 million patients; the state of Virginia announced it will not pay a requested $10 million ransom.

The database is used by pharmacies and doctors to track narcotics and painkiller prescriptions, in an attempt to reduce the amount of abuse, theft and illegal sales of popular prescription drugs.

Both the Virginia state police and FBI are looking into the matter, with Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine saying this is a "crime and it is being treated that way."

The state has refused to pay the ransom, and will instead rely on the FBI's investigation to locate and prosecute the people responsible for this data intrusion.

Since the breach last week, the Department of Health Professions shut down its computer network, and all data has been successfully backed up. The DHP has issued a statement saying it can "assure the public that all precautions are being taken for DHP operations to continue safely and securely."

Hackers’ attempts to steal personal information or hold data for ransom has increased in popularity, with hackers routinely stealing Social Security Numbers and other personal information so it can be sold to identity thieves. There is a growing concern over foreign-based hacker groups that are bankrolled by countries such as China and Russia, who are targeting U.S.-based computer networks.

The FBI hasn't said if they believe this data intrusion to be the work of foreign hackers, but it's a link they're likely looking into during the investigation.
 
They are costing all of us in so many ways and it will only continue to get worse if we snicker at pirating and hacking. There are enemies who hack our defense systems and electricity delivery grids. What will be our take on it when it starts costing lives?

When I first got into hacking in the late 70s we did little pranks but nothing truly dangerous or harmful to others. It was simply a way of saying we could do it-a Geek Badge of Conquest. In today's culture there seems to be no end to how far they are willing to go. It is a truly sad and sick state hacking has sunk to.
Ted
 
Glad I don't live in VA any more ... (sorta) ... wonder how far back the information goes though.

And despite the fact that personal information is what is being held "for ransom" ... I tend to agree with the state's decision. If one state does it, then whats to say that someone else does a copy cat crime and then forces others to pay?

I hope the law has a firm lead on this individual or individuals and will soon have these criminals firmly where they need to be ... locked up and away from computers.
 
the best thing we can do is panic, and allow the government to take away further freedoms in the name of protecting we the people.
we need to set up road blocks on the information super highway.
a unanimous call for more red tape to slow the communication between countries on the internet. we need to stop wasting money on better security and just unplug from the rest of the world, and go back to doing everything on paper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top