Alberta Dental Service Corp reports data breach, exposing 1.5 million individuals, pays ransom
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The Alberta Dental Service Corporation (ADSC) has reported a significant data breach that impacts around 1.47 million residents of Alberta, Canada.
The breach pertains to certain data linked to public dental benefits programs managed by ADSC for the provincial government. The breach, which occurred as a result of a ransomware attack, exposed personal information such as names, addresses, and in some cases, personal banking details of individuals.
No further details of the exposed data nor the vector of attack is disclosed.
Upon discovering the breach ADSC enlisted the expertise of cybersecurity professionals to contain the incident, remediate the breach, and conduct a comprehensive forensic investigation to assess the scope of the breach. The breach spanned from May 7 to July 9, with unauthorized access to certain data from the network and subsequent deployment of malware.
Among those impacted, fewer than 7,300 individuals had provided their personal banking information voluntarily, usually as part of the seniors program to facilitate electronic payments.
Affected individuals, particularly seniors enrolled in the program, are being proactively contacted. A call center is being set up to provide assistance and codes for credit monitoring for the next two years will be given to those with exposed banking information. Other affected individuals will receive letters informing them of the incident, although the exposed data is not expected to be usable by unauthorized parties.
Update - Unusually, ADSC paid the ransom demanded by crime group after negotiations involving cyber insurance and forensics experts, receiving evidence of data deletion.
