Hackers demand $10 mn for stolen medical records

VIRGINIA, USA: Kidnapping for ransom is no news. But hacking for ransom makes news. And exactly that was what happened in Virginia, USA recently. And the victim of this nefarious activity by cyber criminals was Virginia's Department of Health Professions.

As per the media reports, the hackers who claim to have stolen more than 8.3 million residents medical record of the state of Virginia is demanding $10 million for their return.

The report came a week after someone managed to take over a Virginia Department of Health website that monitors prescriptions to track the sales of controlled substances.

The hackers shut down the site and posted a ransom note online, claiming to have stolen and encrypted the data and threatening to sell the data to the highest bidder if authorities did not pay within seven days, added the reports. However, luckily they have not sold the documents so far.

The Virginia's Department of Health Professions declined to give any comments but have conformed that the entire system has been shut down since Thursday to protect the security of the programme data. The FBI also reportedly declined to make any comment on the issue.