Health department now notifying Floridians whose information was stolen, leaked

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Health is sending notices out to people whose personal and health information was stolen by hackers and released on the dark web last month. Floridians are being notified by mail if they were a victim of the cyberattack, and the state is offering them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services, the department wrote in a public notice Wednesday . In June, the international hacker group RansomHub stole at least 20,000 department files that included some Floridians’ most sensitive information: HIV test results, signed medical release forms, detailed insurance data, workers compensation records and COVID-19 diagnoses.

The group demanded payment from the state to recover the files, but the state has a policy against paying ransoms. In July, the group posted the files on the dark web . The department did not say how many people were victims.

The incident, one of the worst cyberattacks in the state’s history, also caused the state’s online system for issuing birth and death certificates to go offline for weeks. The attack occurred June 26 and was discovered the same day, the department said Wednesday. Some of the sensitive information released included patient names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, bank and credit card information, driver’s license and military identification numbers, patients’ prescriptions, insurance claim information and passwords, the department said.

The Times/Herald viewed some of .