A ransomware attack on University of Manchester (UoM) has led to the data breach of over a million patients related to NHS and the data includes NHS numbers of those who took treat-ment, the first three letters of their postal codes, patients suffering from terror attacks and those seeking treatment for major trauma.
The gathered data set was being used for research purposes by some students of the University and unfortunately hackers accessed information from the data set causing embarrassment to the staff of the educational institution.
It is unclear on how the stolen information being stored on the backup servers remained unen-crypted.
However, some sources from the Manchester University claim that the data stored on the ma-chines was encrypted. But the hackers managed to break into the algorithm and read & copy the data.
Prima Facie says that the cyber crooks managed to siphon about 250 gigabytes of data and the stolen data includes info related to GP services as well.
UoM is not interested in revealing more details about the incident. But has contacted ICO, NCSC and the National Crime Agency to investigate the incident to the core.
Cyber Crooks seem to be super interested in information related to finance, education and healthcare. As such data often sells like hot cakes on the dark web, provided its raw and abides by the laws of data freshness.
NOTE- For the past two years, NHS has been constantly hitting news headlines for data breaches and its callousness in protecting information of its patients and staff. Though the not-for-profit organization claims to have taken all proactive measures to safeguard information of its users, it still seems to lack that seriousness in practical.
