Georgia Hospital Notifying 163,000 of 2024 Ransomware Hack

A public Georgia community hospital is notifying more than 163,000 people that their sensitive personal and health information was compromised in a June 2024 ransomware attack. The cybercriminal gang Monti on its dark website last summer claimed Wayne Memorial Hospital as one of its victims.

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In a report filed to Maine’s attorney general on Sept. 5, WMH – the 84-bed community hospital operated by the Wayne County Hospital Authority – said the cyberattack on June 3, 2024, affected 163,440 people and included ransomware encryption of some of the hospital’s data.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool website listing health data breaches affecting 500 or more individuals shows that WMH initially reported the hacking incident to federal regulators in August 2024 as affecting only 2,500 people.

As of Monday, the HHS Office for Civil Rights’ website did not yet show an updated report indicating a surge in the number of individuals affected in the breach.

The hackers – which were not named in the hospital’s sample data breach notification letter – “left a ransom note on WMH’s network,” WMH said in a sample breach notice provided to Maine’s regulator.

“Upon discovery of this event, WMH immediately disconnected access to its network and took certain systems offline while it worked to safely and securely restore its network from backups,” the notice said.

The forensics investigation into the incident found that the hackers “had access to a limited number of WMH systems between May 30 and June 3, 2024,” WMH said.

As of Monday, WMH did not have a breach notice posted on its website about the latest findings concerning the incident. The sample breach notification letter WMH provided Maine’s attorney general redacted the list of potentially affected information.

An attorney representing WMH in its breach report to state regulators, did not immediately respond to Information Security Media Group’s request for additional details about the incident and for comment on Monti’s darkweb claims about the hospital being a one of the group’s victims.

WMH on its website touts itself as being the third-largest employer in Wayne County, GA with 500 employees.

Ransomware attack monitoring website Ransomwarelive.com counts 110 victims of Monti attacks since the cybercrime group first appeared in December 2022.

Another alleged Monti victim on the group’s darkweb site includes New York-based Excelsior Orthopedics, which recently updated a breach report to regulators saying that a June 2024 attack – which occurred around the same time as WMH’s incident – affected nearly 395,000 people (see: Hacks on Specialty Health Entities Affect Nearly 900,000).

Researchers at security firm Black Kite in a report issued earlier this year found that in 2024, ransomware group Monti was behind nearly 21% of attacks targeting healthcare. Everest led the sector with 25% of its victims in healthcare. Other notable groups targeting healthcare include INC Ransom with nearly 22% and Rhysida with 18.5% of their attacks targeting the sector (see: Nursing Home, Rehab Chain Says Hack Affects Nearly 70,000).