The health system with more than 600 facilities reported it had blocked an attempted cyberattack May 16 when it noticed unauthorized activity at one of its IT systems.
Now the threat group AvosLocker has taken credit for the attack, HIPAA Journal reported May 17. The group has been around since 2021 and operates a ransomware -as-a-service model. The group has steadily increased the number of attacks carried out, with 30 in January 2022 and 37 in February 2022. It is believed that the group is based in Russia or an ex-Soviet state because it doesn’t permit attacks on Russian entities, according to HIPAA Journal.
It previously attacked the Sandusky, Mich.-based McKenzie Health system, potentially compromising the data of 25,318 patients. The group posted allegedly stolen data from Christus Health on the dark web but the amount of patient data that was affected by the attack has not been determined.
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