Cyberattack hits 10,000 patients' health data
Ransom demanded from CUHK medical faculty as other victims come forward
Chinese University's Faculty of Medicine has fallen victim to a new wave of cyberattack, with data on more than 10,000 patients hidden from view and a ransom demanded to decrypt it.
The attack targeted the faculty's Centre for Liver Health and Institute of Digestive Disease at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin. A faculty spokeswoman said last night that it was operating as normal and patient care had not been jeopardised.
She added that the attack had encrypted the data so that the faculty could no longer access it, but it did not appear that the information had been stolen.
She said the two servers affected stored day-to-day data as well as research and teaching materials, including more than 10,000 patients' personal details and their health history.
Police confirmed the case was related to the ransomware "SynoLocker", which targets servers made by Synology.
A message demanded the faculty pay 0.6 bitcoin, about US$350, to free the data, according to a police source. Officers also found no evidence that the data had been leaked.