Posted on July 29, 2023 at 2:28 AM
Maximus Announces Hackers Behind MOVEit Transfer Breach Compromised Health Data
Maximus, one of the largest US government services contracting companies, has announced that the hackers behind the breach on the MOVEit Transfer platform might have compromised the health information of many individuals. Maximus has said that this breach resulted in the health information of nearly 11 million individuals being affected.
Hackers behind MOVEit hack access health data
Maximus is a government services contracts firm that is based in Virginia. The company has contracts with federal, local, and state governments. It has also worked in managing and administering government-sponsored programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, healthcare reform, and welfare-to-work.
Maximus contracts made an 8-K filing where it confirmed the breach of this personal information. The company said that a significant number of individuals were compromised by hackers that had exploited a zero-day vulnerability within the MOVEit Transfer program.
The MOVEit Transfer program is usually used by organizations to share data with government customers. The data in question relate to the individuals taking part in a wide range of government programs.
Maximus noted that it was yet to confirm the actual number of individuals that were affected by the breach. The company expects that it will take a few more weeks before the probe is complete and the exact scope of the breach is determined.
The organization notes that these hackers might have accessed a wide range of personal information, such as social security numbers and sensitive health information pertaining to between 8 million and 11 million customers.
If the scope of this breach is large and affects 11 million customers, it could result in it being the largest breach affecting healthcare information to date. Moreover, the attack could also be the largest data breach that has been reported following the hacking campaign that has targeted the MOVEit Transfer platform.
Maximus has yet to confirm the types of health data that were accessed by the hackers, and it is also yet to release a detailed analysis of the threat to fully figure out the scope of the breach. However, the company made an 8-K filing saying that it had already started the process of notifying the affected customers, state and federal regulators.
The organization has also said that it expects that the security incident might have cost around $15 million to investigate and remediate. As such, this hacking campaign might have resulted in a massive and costly compromise of data.
Hacking campaign on the MOVEit file transfer system
The massive data breach on the MOVEit file transfer system was attributed to a Russian data extortion group known as Clop. This hacker group claimed to have accessed 69 gigabytes of data from Maximus, but the data has yet to be released.
Maximus is among the companies that have been affected by the hack on the MOVEit Transfer platform. The information stolen from these organizations was posted on the Cop dark web leak site. The ransomware group has also said that the affected organizations include Deloitte, Flutter, and Poker Stars, among others. Recently, Clop said that PwC and Ernst & Young were also affected by the incident.
A spokesperson from the company said that an analysis of the incident showed that the global network use of this MOVEit Transfer software was limited. The spokesperson also said that the company’s global network use of the MOVEit Transfer software was limited and that the company had seen zero evidence that the breach compromised client data.
As aforementioned, Flutter was also one of the organizations affected by this hack. A spokesperson from the company said that following this breach, it had already reached out to the affected employees and customers. The British sports betting giant claims to provide its services to over 18 million customers globally. However, it has not provided clear numbers on the affected individuals and the nature of the data that was accessed.
The Clop hacking group has also said that Pensions Benefit Information was also affected. This hacker group offers pension plan management services across different industries. The organization issued a brief statement confirming the breach but failed to mention the number of affected individuals.
Four clients at the organization have revealed that the data belonging to over 4.75 million people had been accessed by these hackers. The latest figures from the Emsisoft cybersecurity company also indicate that over 500 organizations were affected by the massive attacks on the MOVEit file transfer service that compromised the personal data of over 34.5 million users.
