A recent cyber attack continues to hamper Florida’s health department as state authorities say they’re working to find those responsible after the breach.
News of the Florida Health data hack came early this month. Since then, the department has worked to lock down its systems while the hacking group responsible says it’s released tens of thousands of patient files online.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Florida Health’s online Vital Statistics system was still in what it said was a “temporary outage.” It manages birth and death certificates, plus plenty more. It was shut down this month after what the department called an attack “perpetrated by a criminal hacking organization.”
That group— RansomHub— said it grabbed 100 gigs of Florida Health data and held it hostage, seeking a large payout. RansomHub later said it released the files online, allegedly compromising patient info for thousands.
In a recent statement, Florida Health officials said “Any affected parties will be notified as a comprehensive assessment of the situation is completed.” Also “certain systems were proactively brought offline to strengthen security measures and bolster monitoring.”
That likely includes Vital Statistics, which has hamstrung operations for Florida funeral homes. Some spoke to ABC Action News earlier this month. Funeral directors said it created a work backlog as they’ve had to certify the death certificates manually. What used to take 7-10 days is now up to 14-21 days in some places.
Meanwhile, Florida Health said a majority of the department’s operations remain up and running. Officials said they remain "engaged in protecting data as the scope and extent of this attack is fully understood." That's as The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates.
In Tuesday a statement, FDLE said: “Health agencies across the world are facing this type of ongoing cyber threat and FDLE agents are quickly and carefully investigating the incident to ensure the criminals responsible are held accountable. Our investigation is active.”
