Pierluigi Paganini
October 26, 2017
The story I’m going to tell you shows the risks of cyber attacks to users’ privacy, a plastic surgery clinic frequented by celebrities suffered a security data breach.
The clinic is the London Bridge Plastic Surgery, among its clients there are celebrities like Katie. The clinic confirmed in a statement that it has been the victim of a cyber attack, the alleged culprit is a well-known hacker that goes online with the moniker The Dark Overlord.
In April the hacker ‘The Dark Overlord’ claimed to have stolen and leaked online episodes from the forthcoming season of the TV show Orange Is The New Black.
“We can confirm that the Clinic has been the victim of a cyber attack. We took measures to block the attack immediately in order to protect patient information and we informed the Metropolitan Police who launched an investigation,” states the statement issued by the London Bridge Plastic Surgery (LBPS).
“Regrettably, following investigations by our IT experts and the police, we believe that our security was breached and that data has been stolen. We are still working to establish exactly what data has been compromised,”
“The Dark Overlord, a hacking group known for mocking and extorting victims, has now stolen highly personal photos from a plastic surgeon in London.” reported Joseph Cox from The Daily Beast.
The Dark Overlord contacted Cox using an email account belonging to LBPS to prove they had compromised the systems at the clinic. The group sent The Daily Beast a cache of photos of LBPS operations.
The cache includes highly graphic and close-up images showing surgery on male and female genitalia, other pictures show apparent patients bodies post-operation, and in some cases they include faces.
“None of a selection of tested photos returned any matches from Google reverse image searches, implying that they were indeed obtained from a private source. Several pictures include LBPS’ chief surgeon Chris Inglefield, wearing his distinctive, multi-colored head scarves. In one image, he is wearing an identical head scarf to that in an image on LBPS’ website.” continues Cox.
The hacker crew also claims that stolen data contains information on royal families and it is threatening to leak the patient list and their photos.
The clinic was not prepared to this cyber attack, it was shocked by the event as admitted in the statement.
“We are horrified that they have now targeted our patients,” continued.” states the LBPS statement.
“Security and patient confidentiality has always been of the utmost importance to us. We invest in market-leading technology to keep our data secure and our systems are updated daily. We are deeply saddened that our security has been breached. We are profoundly sorry for any distress this data breach may cause our patients and our team are available around the clock to speak to anyone who has any concerns by calling 0203 858 0664,”
The British authorities are investigating the data breach.
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(Security Affairs – London Bridge Plastic Surgery, data breach)
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