Robeson Health Care Corp. Agrees to $750K Data Breach Settlement

Posted by Steve Alder

Robeson Health Care Corporation, a Pembroke, North Carolina-based integrated health system, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged hackers compromised its network in a February 2023 cyberattack, exposing the protected health information of 62,627 individuals.

Hackers gained access to its network on or around February 21, 2023, and potentially accessed or acquired protected health information such as names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnosis and treatment information, medical record numbers, Medicare/Medicaid numbers, prescription information, health insurance information, and other sensitive data. The affected individuals started to be notified about the data breach on April 21, 2023.

In early to mid-May 2023, three lawsuits were filed against Robeson Health Care Corp. over the data breach by plaintiffs Julianna McKenzie, Judith Hammonds, and Ronnie McGriff in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The plaintiffs asserted several claims, including negligence for failing to implement reasonable and appropriate safeguards to secure its network and protect patient data from unauthorized access. Robeson Health Care Corp. denies all claims and contentions in the lawsuit, including charges of wrongdoing and liability. Since continuing with the action would likely be expensive and protracted, all parties agreed to negotiate an appropriate settlement. That settlement has been determined to be fair by all parties and has received preliminary approval from the Superior Court of the State of North Carolina for the County of Robeson.

Under the terms of the settlement, Robeson Health Care Corp. has agreed to pay for benefits for class members, which will be capped at $750,000. Class members may submit a claim for up to $2,500 for reimbursement of documented, unreimbursed out-of-pocket losses that resulted from the data breach. Attorneys’ fees and costs have been capped at $250,000, and each of the three plaintiffs will receive a service award of $1,500.

Alternatively, class members may choose to receive a cash payment of $50, which will be paid pro rata after claims have been paid. The cash payments may be higher or lower depending on the number of claims received. In addition, class members can claim two years of single-bureau credit monitoring services. The deadline for exclusion from and objection to the settlement is June 23, 2025. The final approval hearing has been scheduled for July 21, 2025, and the deadline for submitting claims is August 6, 2025. Further information on the settlement can be found on the settlement website:  https://www.rhccdataincidentsettlement.com/

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Ransomware Attacks Increase 123% in 2 Years with 52 New Groups Emerging in 2024

Posted by Steve Alder

New research from Black Kite has shed light on the changing ransomware ecosystem. Over the past year, there has been a marked shift from large ransomware syndicates conducting the bulk of attacks to an increasingly fragmented ransomware ecosystem with a growing number of smaller groups and lone actors.

The report is based on data collected by the Black Kite Research & Intelligence Team (BRITE) between April 2024 and March 2025, including victim analysis, dark web intelligence gathering, and continuous monitoring of ransomware operations. Out of the 150 ransomware groups tracked by BRITE, 96 were considered active, having conducted at least one attack in the past 12 months, a sizeable increase from the 61 active ransomware groups in April 2023. Out of the 96 active ransomware groups, 52 are entirely new groups that emerged in the past 12 months. Over that period, there was a 24% year-over-year increase in the number of publicly disclosed ransomware victims (6,046), which follows an 81% increase over the preceding year, amounting to a 123% increase in disclosed ransomware victims in the past two years.

When the ransomware ecosystem was dominated by large ransomware syndicates such as LockBit and ALPHV/BlackCat, there was a degree of predictability to the attacks, but the power vacuum left by the law enforcement operations against LockBit and the shutdown of ALPHV has led to the creation of many smaller groups, with some of the more experienced actors branching out on their own. With so many new groups, the ransomware ecosystem has become more chaotic, with less sophisticated attacks being conducted in greater volume. BRITE reports that these smaller groups tend to lack the infrastructure, discipline, and credibility of their predecessors, and this shift has resulted in an increase in attack volume, a fall in coordination, and growing unpredictability in how, where, and why attacks unfold.

One trend that has emerged is a shift from attacks on larger companies with deeper pockets to attacks on small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which tend to have poorer defenses, smaller cybersecurity teams, and carry a lower risk of retaliation from law enforcement. The potential rewards from conducting the attacks are lower, with BRITE reporting a 35% reduction in ransom payment values in the past 12 months; however, the overall impact of ransomware attacks has widened. In 2024, the average ransom demand was $4,24 million, the median ransom payment was $2 million, and the average ransom payment was $553,959. SMBs with between $4 and $8 million appear to be the sweet spot in terms of ease of conducting attacks and ransom payment value.

In terms of targets, ransomware groups tend to conduct strategic attacks with the top three targets unchanged year-over-year. Manufacturing was the most targeted sector with 1,315 victims over the past 12 months. Attacks on the sector tend to result in massive disruption to business operations, with the costs of downtime increasing the probability of ransoms being paid. Professional and technical services were the second-most targeted sector with 1,040 attacks, followed by healthcare and social assistance with 434 known attacks.

In terms of the growth of attacks on different sectors, excluding the mass exploitation of vulnerabilities by the Clop group as an outlier, wholesale trade saw the biggest growth with a 2.27% increase in attacks, with healthcare and social assistance in second with 1.44% growth. Physicians and health practitioners overtook hospitals in terms of victim count, as they tend to have far weaker security, lack dedicated security teams, and handle reasonable volumes of sensitive patient data, making them low-hanging fruit with significant extortion potential.  These smaller healthcare providers accounted for 38% of attacks, with hospitals in second spot (20%), social assistance in third (11%), and nursing and residential facilities in fourth (9%).

BRITE also reports deeper entanglement in supply chains, with ransomware groups increasingly targeting third-party vendors, as an attack on a vendor can easily allow the ransomware actor to attack and attempt extortion on dozens of downstream organizations. BRITE reports that ransomware was behind 67% of all known third-party breaches. “Incidents involving Change Healthcare, Blue Yonder, and CDK Global made clear that ransomware’s impact is no longer contained within the four walls of the initially affected organization,” explained Black Kite in the report. “When threat actors compromise a widely used vendor, the effects ripple outward, paralyzing downstream businesses in multiple sectors. In this way, ransomware is increasingly a supply chain problem, not just a cybersecurity one.”

Black Kite predicts a deepening fragmentation of the ransomware ecosystem over the coming year, an increase in double targeting of victims with different ransomware variants deployed in a short space of time, speedier attacks with reduced dwell time between initial access and ransomware deployment, and increased automation and AI-assisted reconnaissance.

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Healthcare Workers Violating Patient Privacy by Uploading Sensitive Data to GenAI and Cloud Accounts

Posted by Steve Alder

Research conducted by the cybersecurity company Netskope indicates healthcare workers routinely expose sensitive data such as protected health information (PHI) by using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini and by uploading data to personal cloud storage services such as Google Drive and OneDrive.

The healthcare industry has fully embraced AI tools, with almost all organizations using AI tools to some degree to improve efficiency. According to data collected by Netskope Threat Labs, 88% of healthcare organizations have integrated cloud-based genAI apps into their operations, 98% use apps that incorporate genAI features, 96% use apps that leverage user data for training, and 43% are experimenting with running genAI infrastructure locally.

As more healthcare organizations incorporate AI tools into their operations and make them available to their workforces, fewer healthcare workers are using personal AI accounts for work purposes; however, 71% of healthcare workers still use personal AI accounts, down from 87% the previous year. If genAI tools are not HIPAA-compliant and the developers will not sign business associate agreements, using those tools with PHI violates HIPAA and puts organizations at risk of regulatory penalties. Further, uploading patient data to genAI tools and cloud storage services without robust safeguards in place can erode patient trust.

“Beyond financial consequences, breaches erode patient trust and damage organizational credibility with vendors and partners,” Ray Canzanese of Netskope said. It is clear that there needs to be greater oversight of the use of AI tools, and a pressing need for authorized tools to be provided to reduce “shadow AI” risks.

According to Netskope, the mishandling of HIPAA-regulated data is the leading security concern in the healthcare sector, and PHI is the most common type of sensitive data uploaded to personal cloud apps, genAI apps, and other unapproved locations. Netskope reports that 81% of all data policy violations were for regulated healthcare data, with the remainder including source code, secrets, and intellectual property.

“Healthcare organizations must balance the benefits of genAI with the implementation of strict data governance policies to mitigate associated risks,” warns Netskope. Netskope recommends the adoption of enterprise-grade genAI applications with robust security features to ensure that sensitive and regulated data is properly protected, along with data loss prevention (DLP) tools for monitoring and controlling access to genAI tools to prevent privacy violations. Netskope says 54% of healthcare organizations now have DLP policies, up from 31% the previous year. The most commonly blocked genAI apps in healthcare are DeepAI, Tactiq, and Scite, with 44%, 40%, and 36% of healthcare organizations blocking these apps with their DLP tools due to privacy risks and there being more secure alternatives.

While genAI tools certainly have a place in healthcare and can help improve efficiency, there are significant security challenges. Netskope warns that healthcare organizations must remain vigilant, implement comprehensive security measures, and enforce data protection policies, as well as incorporate the risks into their cybersecurity awareness training.

The report also warns of the risk of malware infections via cloud apps. Threat actors are increasingly using cloud apps to deploy information stealers and ransomware, with GitHub, OneDrive, Amazon S3, and Google Drive being the most common. Rather than trying to breach networks themselves, threat actors use social engineering to trick healthcare employees into compromising their own systems with first-stage malware payloads, which give threat actors initial access to networks. Netskope recommends inspecting all HTTP and HTTPS traffic for phishing and malware, blocking apps that serve no business purpose or pose a disproportionate risk to the organization, and using remote browser isolation technology when categories of websites need to be visited that pose a higher risk, such as newly registered domains.

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