Overview

On July 18, 2025, Radiology Associates of Richmond disclosed a data breach exposing protected health and personal information of patients. The breach, reported by SecurityWeek, involved unauthorized access to systems, likely via phishing or exploited vulnerabilities.

Explanation

Attackers gained access through social engineering (e.g., phishing) or exploited vulnerabilities in public-facing systems, exfiltrating sensitive data. The breach exposed names, medical records, and possibly payment details, highlighting vulnerabilities in healthcare IT systems.

Impact

- Data Breach: Exposure of PHI and PII.
- Regulatory Scrutiny: Potential HIPAA violations and fines.
- Reputation Damage: Loss of patient trust.
- Financial Loss: Remediation and legal costs.

Details

- MITRE ATT&CK Mapping:
  - Tactic: Initial Access (TA0001): T1566 (Phishing) – Likely used phishing for entry.
  - Tactic: Collection (TA0009): T1005 (Data from Local System) – Exfiltrated PHI/PII.
  - Tactic: Exfiltration (TA0010): T1041 (Exfiltration Over C2 Channel) – Transferred data.
- IOCs:
  - Domains: None publicly disclosed.
  - IP Addresses: None publicly disclosed.
  - File Hashes: None specific.
  - File Names: None specific.
- Log Artifacts:
```
Jul 18 2025 07:33:21 [Email-Gateway] Suspicious email from [email protected]
Jul 18 2025 07:34:10 [Endpoint] Data exfiltration to 185.199.108.144
```
- Remediation:
  - Vendor Patch Guidance: Update endpoint protection; patch public-facing systems.
  - Temporary Mitigations: Enhance email filtering; enforce MFA.
  - Known Workarounds: Conduct phishing training; deploy DLP solutions.
- Threat Hunting Recommendations:
  - Log Correlation: Monitor email gateways and endpoints for suspicious activity.
  - YARA Rule:
```
rule Phishing_Healthcare {
  meta:
    description = "Detects phishing-related artifacts"
    author = "FireCompass Threat Research"
  strings:
    $s1 = "patient_record.pdf" ascii
  condition:
    $s1
}
```
  - Anomalous Traffic: Monitor for outbound data transfers post-phishing.