Pierluigi Paganini May 23, 2021

The Alaska health department website was forced offline by a malware attack, officials are investigating the incident.

The website of the Alaska health department was forced offline this week by a malware attack. Local authorities launched an investigation into the attack, at the time of this writing, they did not provide details about the intrusion. It is not clear how hackers breached the network Alaska health department and how they planted the malicious code. Experts speculate the involvement of a ransomware family in the attack, investigators are working to determine if any personal or confidential information was compromised.

“The health department in a statement late Tuesday said its website was taken offline Monday while an investigation takes place.” reported the Associated Press. “The statement did not say when the cyberattack was discovered, and Clinton Bennett, a department spokesperson, by email Wednesday said the department could not release that information “due to security reasons, and so we do not jeopardize the investigation.”

At the end of April, the Alaska court system was hit by a similar attack, on April 29 the attackers placed malware on the system, prompting the IT staff to disconnect online services on May 1.

The COVID-19 vaccine appointment scheduling and data dashboards were not impacted because are hosted by outside sources.

“At this time, there are no details about who initiated the attack, why they targeted DHSS, whether this attack is related to any other recent attacks, or how long the website may be down,” the Department of Health and Social Services said in its statement.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Alaska health department)

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