Hackers used health care provider's systems to file false unemployment claims
Russian-speaking hackers waging a ransomware attack against a health care provider simultaneously used its computer infrastructure to file fraudulent unemployment claims with Washington State's Employment Security Department, corporate investigations firm Kroll says.
Nicole Siete, a Kroll senior vice president of cyber risk, and colleague Brooke Caviedes, said the firm discovered the hackers' ESD misdeeds as they were investigating the health care provider's ransomware incident.
"While the victim company immediately realized it was dealing with a ransomware event, it had no idea the attackers were also using its infrastructure to file fraudulent unemployment claims with the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD)," Kroll stated in a report about their findings which it shared with the Business Journal on Wednesday.
Kroll on Thursday canceled an interview with the Business Journal and the report, which was commissioned by the unnamed health care provider, is no longer available on its website. A spokeswoman for Kroll said she did not have any insight into those actions.
Employment Security Department spokesman Nick Demerice declined to answer questions about Kroll's report.
"I can’t comment on this given it speaks to parts of the investigation," Demerice said in an email, referring to ongoing criminal probes by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2020/06/18/cybercrimes-esd-unemployment-insurance-claim-fraud.html?ana=e_sea_bn_exclusive_exclusive&j=90515076&t=Breaking%20News&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTXpSaU0yUmpPVGs1Wm1FMCIsInQiOiJMVzFVcE5rZVhGcGtSWm1zRHJkc0dSNHM4M2FzRVRuNDgxVkI0bGl6N2t0TEV4ak5NdWxlS2tMKzI4QUE2TWVVNGk2TTFnRWo5SUVuOXVmTDJsYW9zc1VkazlHWHJvQnIrd1prTWtXUjBTZTd6MVZVSW9meUpjMXRRZTFqaTM5eCJ9