Mexico: On Monday 26 October, a ransomware group known as BYOD claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Centre.
The cybersecurity threat was identified by UNM at around 11:00 am on Monday.
It is alleged that the cyberattack affected around 36,000 machines and also allegedly accessed hospital and university data.
From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., the health system redirected ambulances to alternative hospitals in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
The staff suspended future appointments and surgeries for the day to isolate and protect the network.
Notably, UNM Hospital operates as New Mexico’s sole Level I trauma centre.
UNM Hospital has restored normal operations after the disruption.
The next afternoon, UNM Health Sciences Centre posted an update that said, “All UNM Health hospitals are fully open, ambulance traffic has returned to normal operations, and clinics have resumed regularly scheduled appointments and procedures.”
According to the reports, classes were cancelled at UNM School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and College of Population Health on Tuesday.
However, according to an update made by UNM, the classes were resumed on Wednesday for all the colleges.
The case still remains under investigation.
According to the reports, BYOD added the University of New Mexico to its dark web leak site.
Allegedly, the attack affected two Oracle databases, the Oracle HR and Payroll system, student records, internal emails, electronic health records and other essential data.
The group also claimed to have gained information such as Social Security numbers of the employees and students who were enrolled in the establishment.
According to a report by a dark web informer, the listing said, “This is your entire network and infrastructure compromised, the entire university COMPLETELY.”
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On October 27, the group sent out an update on their cyberattack. They published that they will be offering free decryption keys for devices allegedly locked during the hospital attack.
The update also stated, “To any patient who was affected, please provide us proof, and we will pay you up to $2500 each for the inconvenience. We are sorry once again. We have morals, and we have a heart; we are not villains, but we will still continue to hold companies responsible for bad security leading to the compromise of any customer data. That’s the whole reason why we came about, and we plan to keep it that way.”
UNM shared a statement warning that those who were responsible for the attack can further exploit patients through additional scams.
“Following a cybersecurity incident, those responsible may attempt to exploit public concern through additional scams, including false offers of payments or compensation.”
According to the reports, the group emerged a month ago, and since then they have claimed many such attacks, including one involving Trump Mobile.
The university has not officially called this a ransomware attack yet, and the police are still investigating the incident.
(Rh/ARC)