Gamers Raid Medical Server to Host Black Ops
A medical server was compromised to host a Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer server.
The Register reports that unknown hackers took control of a medical server storing sensitive patient information and created a dedicated multiplayer server for the just-released Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Although the breach was originally discovered on November 12, 2010, New Hampshire-based Seacoast Radiology told patients on Tuesday that the hacked server stored their names, social security numbers, medical diagnosis codes, addresses and other details. Currently there's no evidence of any misuse of the private information; however, patients were warned to keep an eye out for any foul play.
After discovering the breach, the medical group called in ID Experts to investigate. According to Lisa MacKenzie, a spokesperson for the firm, the hackers were located in Scandinavia however she did not provide details on how the firm came to that conclusion. Other details of the breach, including the weakness in security that allowed the hackers to take over, were also kept under wraps.
The November breach was discovered after an administrator noticed a huge drop in bandwidth. After the investigation, ID Experts reported the incident to the federal Department of Health and Human Services as well as the New Hampshire attorney general.
It's unclear how long the hackers had the Black Ops server up and running before the breach was discovered, however the security flaw was eventually tracked down and fixed.
Wait, what?!
Hey, how's the view from up there?
Nah, this server is just for billing and insurance claims. Medical records are still kept in hard-copy files (by law).
Why would you hack a server at all? All it takes is a cheap computer running linux. In most of Scandinavia, they have 10-100mbps running to each and every home, so it wasn't a bandwidth issue either. This was done purely for the thrill of it. Some nerd in his mom's basement got a hard-on doing it, and that's all you need to know.
Hey, it could've been a muscled tanned blond in-his-20s trying to impress a 18 year old model while being at her home over a LAN Party with some friends... It could... It...
You know what, never mind.
Cheers!
I was thinking the exact same thing.