'It's quite devastating:' More than 40,000 files released by hacker group after Florida DOH hack

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Dozens of Jacksonville files were included in the cyber attack involving the Florida Department of Health.

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The hacker group, RansomHub, released more than 40,000 files, double the number previously reported last week.

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Our company, Cox Media Group, collaborated with an anti-virus software group to access the RansomHub site. It’s important to note, we did not download any of the actual files. The files likely contain malware, according to our cybersecurity expert, and it is illegal to view patient information. We only viewed the list of files posted by the hackers.

“It’s quite devastating,” Luke Connolly said. He is a threat analyst with Emsisoft, and found thousands of files stolen by RansomHub, including data from the Florida Department of Health. “Patient information, medical records with lab results.”

In just one of those file lists, Action News Jax found “Jacksonville” mentioned 47 times, meaning information shared with your local health department could be in the hands of hackers. However, it’s unclear if the group will publish all it has stolen.

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On the dark web, we found a lot of information has already been published, after the Florida Department of Health did not pay the ransom requested.

“If you pay the ransom, you’re entering into a contract with a criminal group,” Connolly said. “If you pay, they say they won’t do anything. They say that they’ll delete the data, but that’s not really verifiable.”

Connolly said if you use any of the Department of Health facilities in Florida, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself.

“Change your passwords. Make sure that you have multi-factor authentication implemented,” Connolly said. “You might want to do something like put a credit freeze on your account, so that credit accounts can’t be created under your name if they have the appropriate credentials.”

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We reached out to the Florida Department of Health for the latest on the investigation. A spokesperson sent us this statement:

“The Florida Department of Health (Department) is working diligently with law enforcement and all relevant stakeholders in responding to one of multiple attacks perpetrated by criminal hacking organizations against several states in a nationwide and worldwide trend of cybersecurity attacks targeting health care organizations. The majority of Department systems and services remain operational with no disruptions. In an effort to protect the private data of Floridians, certain systems were proactively brought offline to strengthen security measures and bolster monitoring. The Department remains engaged in protecting data as the scope and extent of this attack is fully understood. Any affected parties will be notified as a comprehensive assessment of the situation is completed. We encourage all FDOH healthcare providers to stay attentive to alerts from the Department and follow those best practices disseminated to secure data. This incident has also been referred to FDLE for investigation, and criminal activity will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

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