Hackers Steal 280GB of Data from NY Emergency Medical Service – Phone Numbers, Passports, SSNs, and More

New York-based Empress Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has issued a notice informing customers that it has lost 'some data' to hackers.

Based in the City of Yonkers, New York, Empress Emergency Medical Services (EMS) prides itself for being “one of the premier providers of both emergency and non-emergency medical transport in New York State.”

The service concentrates its efforts towards providing patient care “in a personal and compassionate manner,” according to its website. It staffs over 200 “high-caliber” personnel, 24-hour communications center houses, and “one the most advanced computer aided systems in the region.”

Yet Empress was ill-prepared for a fight with ransomware operators.

Patient data compromised

The service has issued a notice informing anyone concerned that it has suffered a cyber-incident affecting the privacy and security of its patients’ information.

The letter explains that on July 14, 2022, Empress identified a network incident resulting in the encryption of some of its systems – in other words, a ransomware attack.

“We took measures to contain the incident, reported it to law enforcement, and we conducted a thorough investigation with the assistance of a third-party forensic firm,” the letter says. “Our investigation determined that an unauthorized party first gained access to certain systems on our network on May 26, 2022, and then copied a small subset of files on July 13, 2022.”

The notice reveals those files contained patient names, dates of service, insurance information, and in some instances, Social Security numbers (SSNs).

But according to databreaches.net, which secured an exclusive chit-chat with the attackers, the data leak is far greater than what Empress paints it to be.

Hive operators strike again

The cyber news outlet says the group behind the attack is none other than Hive, the infamous ransomware crew that recently also hit telecommunications operator Bell Canada.

Hive shared the ransom note with the site, revealing that after they gained a foothold in the infrastructure they stuck around for 12 days exfiltrating some 280GB of data before encrypting the company’s systems.

Hackers stole much more than SSNs

Perhaps more important is the type of data they allegedly stole. According to the note, Hive pilfered:

· contracts - NDA, and other agreements documents

· company private info - budgets, plans, investments, company bank statements, etc.

· employee info - SSNs, emails, addresses, passports, phone numbers, payments, working hours, etc.

· customer info - SSNs, emails, addresses, passports, phone numbers, payments, working hours, etc.

· SQL databases with reports, business data, customer data, etc.

· approximate number of personal records including addresses and SSNs above 10000 units

Hive crew members have yet to leak/dump any sensitive information online, while the ransom demands are unclear at the time of this writing.

Empress is mailing letters to affected individuals and is offering “eligible individuals” credit monitoring services. It advises patients to review their healthcare statements for accuracy and contact their provider if they see services they did not receive.