Medusa Claims Ransomware Attacks on Mississippi Medical Center and New Jersey County
Summary
Medusa claimed attacks on the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Passaic County. The hospital was offline for nine days, and the county reported disrupted phone and IT systems. Medusa demanded ransoms and threatened a data leak.
Key points
- Medusa claimed responsibility for an attack on the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), which went offline for nine days.
- UMMC closed all 35 clinic locations; its hospitals and emergency departments remained operational.
- Medusa demanded $800,000 from UMMC and threatened to leak data it claimed to have stolen.
- Passaic County said a malware attack disrupted phone lines and IT systems across government offices; Medusa also claimed an attack and demanded $800,000.
- The FBI and Department of Homeland Security assisted UMMC's recovery; the hospital fully reopened on March 2.
- Experts believe Medusa operates from Russia, citing Russian-language forum activity, Cyrillic script in tools, and avoidance of Commonwealth of Independent States targets.
Article Details
- Victim
- University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC); Passaic County, New Jersey
- Encryption Status
- Not disclosed; the article reports Medusa's claims but does not confirm encryption.
- Exfiltration Status
- Unconfirmed; Medusa threatened to leak data it said was stolen from UMMC, but the article does not independently confirm exfiltration.
- Exfiltrated Data
- Data Medusa claimed was stolen from UMMC; the type of data was not disclosed.
- Ransom Demand
- Medusa demanded $800,000 in connection with each victim, according to the article.
- Leak Status
- Medusa threatened to leak UMMC data by March 20; the article does not report that data was published. Leak status for Passaic County was not disclosed.