US pharmacy network loses 1.4 terabytes of data to boasting hackers

A group of cyber criminals have claimed responsibility for a hack that resulted in 1.469 terabytes (TB) of data being stolen from the American Associated Pharmacies (AAP).

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The AAP has taken to its website to post a notice informing its customers that the passwords to their accounts have been reset as the APP suspects its servers have been compromised. The AAP wrote that all existing credentials will no longer be "valid to access the sites" and that users will need to navigate to "forgot password" and follow the prompts accordingly. The group called Embargo has claimed responsibility for the attack, writing on its website the AAP paid $1.3 million to have their systems decrypted, but now the group is demanding an additional $1.3 million not to release the stolen data.

Notably, as always with ransomware stories, take the claims by the hacking group with a healthy amount of skepticism as sometimes they aren't exactly what is being alleged or completely false. As for what Embargo wants ransom for, it isn't exactly clear as details, such as the type of stolen data, haven't been released to the public. However, Embargo has given the AAP until November 20 to pay the additional $1.3 million, and if that date is exceeded, the hacking group will leak the stolen data online.

Lastly, the AAP oversees more than 2,000 independent pharmacies across the United States. Given the alleged 1.4TB of stolen data, it's likely the ransomware group has obtained medical records and account details from all customers across the affected pharmacies.