A reputable group of cybercriminals allegedly attacked a notorious children’s hospital in Canada. However, a few days after the ransomware was deployed, the collective finally issued an apology.
Lockbit, the notorious hacker group behind massive attacks against Thales and even Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers, recently launched a ransomware-type cyber attack against a rather unusual target, since it was the SickKids hospital in Toronto. It is a medical center focused on teaching and research whose objective is to provide care for sick children.
On December 18, SickKids reported being hit by ransomware, which impacted the hospital’s internal systems, phone lines and website. As one might expect, this cyberattack caused delays in receiving lab and imaging resultsas well as longer wait times for patients.
Lockbit makes its mea culpa, the attack was a mistake
While Lockbit was more accustomed to targeting large companies or even governments, since it recently attacked the French Ministry of Justice, the cyberattack on the hospital was quite unexpected.
In a statement two days after the attack, Lockbit apologized. ” We formally apologize for the attack on sikkids.ca and are giving away the decryptor for free, the partner who attacked this hospital violated our rules, is blocked and is no longer part of our affiliate program said the ransomware web.
It would therefore seem that one of the former members of the collective is behind the cyberattack, which was however prohibited by the rules of the group on this type of establishment. Fortunately, the decryptor was donated to the hospital, which goes allow it to permanently get rid of the ransomware.
The group clarifies that its rules prohibit “ encrypt institutions where damage to files could lead to death, such as heart centers, neurosurgery departments, maternity hospitals and others, i.e. institutions where surgical procedures on high-tech equipment using computers can be made “. Only data theft in any medical institution is allowed by its policy.