Alberta Dental Services suffers Ransomware attack

A Canadian government body tasked with providing dental services has paid a ransomware demand after having data stolen in an 8base ransomware attack.

The Alberta Dental Service Corp. said Aug. 10 that it detected the ransomware attack on July 26, when it discovered that certain data pertaining to public dental benefits programs it administers was implicated in a recent cybersecurity incident. ADSC took measures to prevent authorized access and hired a third-party forensic firm. The corporation was also able to recover affected systems and data from backups with minimal loss.

It’s believed that the data of approximately 1.47 million individuals were compromised, including, in a small number of cases, personal banking information, with those having banking information stolen being offered complimentary credit monitoring services.

This looks like a standard ransomware attack where the victim was fortunate to have proper backups and was able to restore service promptly, but then it became interesting since ADSC paid the ransom demanded by 8base.

The payment was made as part of negotiations between the organization’s cyber insurance provider and forensic investigator. The 8base gang then showed proof that the data was deleted as part of the deal.

The amount of the ransom paid was not disclosed. 8base has been active since March 2022 and uses a combination of encryption and “name-and-shame” tactics to force victims to pay a ransom