Maryland Health Department Hit by Ransomware Attack

 A ransomware attack has struck Maryland’s Health Department.  The department is attempting to mitigate IT service outages, yet the process is plodding along at a slow pace.

When Did the Ransomware Attack Occur?

Representatives from the Maryland Department of Health state the attack occurred in December.  The digital attack is still disrupting a litany of services one month later.  Those services were pulled from the web during the recovery process.

Was the Ransom Paid?

Maryland officials have stated they have not paid the requested ransom.  The department also stated the attack provided an opportunity to use its cyber insurance policy.
 

What is the Response to the Attack?

Chip Stewart, the Maryland CISO, confirmed the attack last Wednesday.  Stewart issued a public statement indicating the attack on the state’s Department of Health was first discovered on December 4.  
 

Stewart highlighted the fact that the department has refused to cave to extortion demands.  He went on to detail how the department is consulting with vendors along with Maryland state enforcement and federal law enforcement.  The statement also touched on the fact that the department is unaware of the digital miscreant’s reasons for levying the ransomware attack.  
 

The department pinpointed and contained the affected systems within a couple hours of the initial detection.  The investigation has not revealed evidence of any unauthorized access of state information.  Nor has the investigation revealed the theft of state information. 

Stewart spoke before the Maryland legislature earlier this week, stating the ransomware attack also included a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that ultimately failed.  It is interesting to note digital forensics specialists hard at work on the case insist the distributed denial-of-service attack was implemented by a different group of cyber attackers.
 

How did the Attack Play Out?

Stewart’s comments to the media shed light on how the attack occurred.  According to Stewart, the state’s health department network specialists determined one of its servers was not functioning as expected on the morning of Saturday, December 4.  An investigation ensued.  The network team performed troubleshooting and identified shady activity that necessitated escalation to the IT security specialists.  
 

Stewart then triggered the cybersecurity incident response by way of the state’s Security Operations Center.  This action spurred responses from the state police, the Maryland National Guard, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, the state’s Department of Emergency Management, and the state’s Department of Information Technology.
 

What is the Maryland Cyber Insurance Policy All About?
 

As noted by Stewart, the attack empowered him to activate Maryland’s cybersecurity insurance policy via the Treasurer’s Office.  This policy summoned outside digital forensics specialists along with advisory resources to assist with the handling of the attack.  Action was quickly taken to contain the threat and isolate network sites, state networks, and external parties to stop the spread.  Though certain services were rendered non-functional as a result of the attack, they will likely be back up in the weeks ahead.  
 

Stewart insists the decision to take down certain parts of the network was intentional.  He stressed the importance of moving forward with a cautious approach to mitigate the threat and fully recover in a reasonable amount of time.  As of Thursday, 95% of the state’s surveillance data had been reimplemented.