PerCSoft is a Wisconsin business. The organization provides
online data backup services for dental offices. This operates by placing data
in the cloud. They had hundreds of dental offices as clients. The focus was to
secure the patient medical records and other data from the various attacks,
including ransomware.
Irony
The irony of this pwnage has not fallen on deaf ears. In
this industry, it’s not often the irony though has this much depth. The firm’s
function was to secure backups for their clients. In certain instances where
there would be an issue with the client’s data, such as with a natural disaster
or a successful ransomware attack. In their marketing materials, the safety
of ransomware is emblazoned. The organization, whose function was to secure data
from ransomware had their files encrypted with ransomware, making them not
accessible.
Ransomware
PerCSoft, the online data backup service, was successfully
attacked with ransomware. This attack encrypted files for approximately 400 US
dental offices. It appears the tool used was Sodinokibi, a ransomware variant
aka Sodin or REvil malware. This was addressed as a critical vulnerability with
Oracle WebLogic Servers, and with CVE-2019-2725 with a severity score of
9.8/10. This operates as a deserialization remote code execution vulnerability.
This was designed to encrypt files and delete the shadow copy backups. This
prevents the victim from recovering the data from other sources and puts the
victim in a very difficult situation.
Attack
The ransomware was detected on August 26. This was,
relatively, a very successful attack, and apparently profitable for the
attackers, as they were paid. There were over 400 dental practices affected. To
appreciate the full extent of just this aspect, imagine the number of patients
seen every day, multiplied by two weeks, and then multiply this by 400, to be
conservative. This attack did not merely affect a few offices, but also all the
people that work there and the patients. The practices were not able to access
patient history, charts, schedules, x-rays, or patient balances. I can only
imagine how difficult this was to work through for the affected staff members
and patients.
Remediation
PerCSoft ended up paying the attackers. While not published,
this course may have been required as their primary files and all of their
backups being encrypted or deleted, and they simply had no choice. It was not reported
who was paid or how much. As of 8/29/2019, 80-100 of the 400 dental office
files had not been decrypted. In these instances, the decrypt key did not work,
which is an issue. The restoration of the other offices was a bit slow. On a
positive note, the organization did communicate on a regular basis with their
clients and interested parties through, among other means, Facebook from their
postings.
Defenses
Perhaps PerCSoft should have followed a few of the basic
industry standards and processes to reduce the potential for an epic fail. The
practices include:
·
Backing up your data. This can be done on- or
off-site. Dedup is an option, dependent on the circumstances and budget.
·
System inventory. Over time, we tend to become
complacent with the network. Periodically we should take an inventory of the
assets on the network. This reduces the opportunity for missed patches and also
detects any unknown or shadow assets using your equipment and network.
·
Conduct cybersecurity training throughout the
year and make it relevant. The once a year cybersecurity mandatory training to
check the box simply still does not work. This needs to be done through the
year with relevant, current training. Granted, your task is not to entertain
the staff during these, however, you still need to attract and retain their
attention. This will assist with them internalizing the message and applying
it, as some level, to their work, when the need presents itself. The
alternative is to play the same VHS tape from the 1990s and having your staff
in an infinite loop of mass password resets, patching vulnerabilities, scanning
for issues, and headaches.
·
Patch cycle. While this may not directly impact
the ransomware attack, it is still prudent and an industry-standard to address
this with regularity, in addition to the critical and time-sensitive patches
requiring immediate attention.
Lessons Learned?
PerCSoft paid the ransom, as noted previously. This may have
been their only option given the germane circumstances. The organization may
not have backups of their client’s data. The organization having to pay the
ransomware fee to operate is bad enough. This, however, should ask you, in a
researcher role, to wonder why they had to pay the attackers only to operate.
There generally are so many issues with this avenue, it is hardly recommended.
Resources
Kobialka, D. (2019, August 29). Ransomware attack hits
backup provider, US dental offices. Retrieved from https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-breaches-and-attacks/ransomware/dental-offices-hit/
Krebs, B. (2019, August 29). Ransomware bites dental data
backup firm. Retrieved from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/08/ransomware-bites-dental-data-backup-firm/
Kumar, M. (2019, May 1). Hackers found exploiting oracle
WebLogic RCE flaw to spread ransomware. Retrieved from https://thehackernews.com/2019/05/ransomware-oracle-weblogic.html
Percsoft Dental Technology Consulting. (2019). Facebook
posts. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.om/pg/percsoft/posts
Wei, W. (2019, August 30). Ransomware hits dental data
backup service offering ransomware protection. Retrieved from https://thehackernews.com/2019/08/dds-safe-dental-ransomware-attack.html
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